ICANN has received a formal Request for Reconsideration of its decision to renew its contract with Verisign to manage the generic top-level domain .COM. The author of the request, who signed as Sundram Tiwari, “is seeking to become a .COM registry operator to make domain names more affordable and accessible to students, startups, and developers.” He also claims that the decision to renew the contract with Verisign harms competition and limits the opportunities for registries that offer a more innovative approach.
He names such a registry as a certain company, Asxit LLC. Looking for information about it is a futile effort. If it exists not only in the imagination of the applicant, then no one knows anything about it, and it is impossible to imagine that such a company is capable of managing the largest domain zone. The Domain Incite, reporting this news, notes that in August of this year, a person with the same name and surname already contacted ICANN with a proposal to transfer the .NET domain zone under the management of Asxit LLC. At that time, Sundram Tiwari introduced himself as a student at the private Liberty University in Virginia. However, it is unknown how much this information can be trusted. Tiwari's appeals to ICANN are too reminiscent of either sophisticated trolling or the actions of a not entirely adequate person.
This story could simply be laughed at, but the sad side of the matter is that the request for review was submitted in compliance with all official rules. And now ICANN lawyers will have to spend time drafting a justification for the refusal, and the corporation's board will have to meet to approve this refusal. Surely, ICANN employees could have spent this time more usefully.
