On Tuesday 14th August, I participated in ZA-DNA's (ZA- Domain Name Authority) public consultation process with respect to the proposed policies and procedures for the administration of the ZA domain name space . The ZA-DNA was setup in terms of the 2002 ECT act and the process to revamp the current ZA domain name structure has taken some time to implement. The meeting itself was quiet lively but before going into details I would like to setout the implications and impact of the proposed changes as I understand them.
Underlying prinicples and main proposals
The principles informing the proposed structures and procedures are to:
1) Encourage the growth of the internet in SA,
2) Increase competition e.g. it should be cheaper to get a ZA domain than a .com etc
3) Broad based black economic empowerment and to
4) Ensure a financial and technically stable and robust domain name system,
The proposals sets forth:
1) A new model for the open domains, closed domains will remain largely unchanged. (Closed domains have restrictions on who can register eg .edu.za, ac.za, open domains have no restrictions),
2) A proposed fee structure to finance the ZA DNA and,
3) Technical considerations and procedures for domain renewal, transfer and licensing
Major impact on ZA Domain name structure
The biggest change is the proposal to implement a registry=>registrar=>reseller/end user model that is implemented in many countries in the world. The basis of the proposal is that there should be a single registry for domain names. The rationale for this is:
- A registry is a natural monopoly having two registries for one second level domain makes no sense,
- A single registry will allow for a single api to register second level domain names, at least for open domains, that will encourage the growth of the internet in South Africa,
- A single registry will be able to offer the benefits of economy of scale to the lesser know second level domain such as net.za alt.za etc and this can be passed on to consumers as a lower cost.
One of the benefits of a single registry in my opinion, that was not mentioned, is that there can be a pooling of resources needed to defend ZA second level domains from denial of service attacks. One only has to look at the Lithuanian example to realise that significant damage can be done to the South African economy should we fall foul of a sustained denial of service attack.
A rather lively meeting
The meeting was lively to say the least and was clearly divided between three constituents
1) The current administrators of the closed second level domains such as edu.za, school.za etc
2) The current administrator of the open and commercial co.za domain,
3) New entrants and potential registrars,
The first constituency's main concern was that they currently offer a free service and the proposal did not seem to address that. Allan Levin, ZADNA expert in the domain restructure proposal, explained the closed domains will not have to join the single registry but could remain independent and free.
Ostensibly the second group's main concern, which was shared by the first constituency was that, as the current entrenched players, they had not been sufficiently consulted in the process. There was secondary, and valid concerns, around technical issues, this input was welcomed by the committee. There was a heated debate around the proposed fee structure which seemed like a red herring to me as the proposed fees are much lower that what is currently charged, R30 as opposed to R50 per domain. I was left with the distinct impression, however, that Uniform has a specific economic interest to defend. Currently there are 300 000 odd co.za domains registered, at R50 per year that represents R15,000,000 per year. Something which anyone will fight tenaciously to keep a hold of.
The third group, made up of what will one day be registrars, did not really have a coherent view, being new to the process. However durng the course of the discussions the implications for them as resellers and registrants and the potential for increased competition saw them warm to the committee's proposals.
Advantages of the proposed structure and policies
Personally I form part of the third group. I support the thrust of the new proposed policies and procedures. There are details and rough edges that will need to be ironed out before the proposal is adopted but on the whole it will be good for South Africa and the Internet. What I would like to see as outcomes of this process are:
- Increased competition in the domain name space - in the US one can pick up a domain for less that R8 a year while in SA it still costs around R100 for end consumers,
- A policy that allows for smaller players to enter the DNS market not just the big players such as IS, MWeb and Uniform,
- A prevention of the proliferation of second level domains. One of the proposals set forth was to open up the second level domain space. I think this is a bad idea. Currently if you give outyour web url you only have to mention the middle bit as everyone knows the suffix is co.za and the prefix www,
- A massive increase in registered domains.
Serveral procedures and polices I look particularly forward to are:
- Mandatory whois servers for the registry
- A single, consolidated invoicing system. Currently Uniform send you individual bills for each domain registered. This is an administrative nightmare for resellers,
- A single API to register domains for many 2nd level ZA domains such as org.za, net.za etc.