Rick

In response to your comments about 'au.com' you have made a number of
incorrect assumptions, and raised some pertinent questions I would like to
address. 

Larry Bloch and myself started and ran the largest domain name registrar in
the UK (NetBenefit) before it was sold to General Internet Corporation, and
continue to have an involvement in the largest domain name registrar in
France (Virtual Internet - France). We are now building a business in
Australia and are investing alot of experience and money into ensuring we
deliver a good service to our customers here.

Our research of this market has been thorough. 

We have contacted a random sample of 3,500 Australian companies, supplied
by Dun & Bradstreet. We solicited replies from 48 companies, with Internet
connectivity, and every single one of these companies made their position
abundantly clear; they don't care about rules governing domain name
registration, they just want whatever domain name they desire. Granted, the
number of replies made a small sample, however their unanimous response
made us realise further research was unnecessary.

Our research of the views of PISPs and industry bodies has been much more
extensive. All but one of the industry bodies (ISOC) were happy with the
initiative. We have spoken to over 50 potential PISPs and so far over 70%
of commentators fully supported the idea of the Australian International
Domain, just under 20% were indifferent and just over 10% didn't think it
was a good idea. 

We were very encouraged by these statistics as they clearly indicate a very
strong demand for au.com.

In answer to some more pertinent technical questions.
1. Delegation from au.com servers is free of charge and without restriction
2. NetRegistry guarantees that au.com fees will never go up
3. The main au.com server is configured with 128Mb of memory, has a fully
redundant disk array and is backed up daily to 2 on-site locations and one
off-site. It's connection to the Internet is 10Mb.
4. Our security is more than sufficient, although we welcome any
non-malicious security 'audit' :-)
5. In the event this 2LD goes out of business there will always be someone
willing to maintain the service and collect the money.

Your observations about the hierachical nature of dns are noted, however
please, please don't call the .com domain 'YANK'. It's the 'international
commercial' domain. Over 40% of all European registrations are within this
'international commercial' domain and rest assured the future of naming in
Australia will tend towards a more international nature.

We do realise that whatever the merits of au.com there will always be a
number of people who are resistant to it. These opinions are respected -
the pros and cons of au.com are clear to everyone on this list and they
should be made clear to clients before they are given the option to choose
between the various domains offered. We do not proclaim that au.com is
always the best option for Australian companies, it is just an option, and
one for which there is clearly a market.

We are currently beta testing our PISP program. Parties interested in
becoming involved should contact myself or Larry Bloch directly. 

Regards
Giles



---
Giles Donovan                            email:  giles§netregistry.com.au
Communications Director                  Office: +61-(0)2-9555 6299
                                         Fax:    +61-(0)2-9555 5808
NetRegistry Pty Limited                  
      
Domain House, 3 Hosking Street, Balmain, Sydney, Australia NSW 2041