2016-03-11

ICANN Board Transmits IANA Transition Plan, What Happens Next?

Now that the IANA stewardship transition plan has been transmitted by the ICANN Board of Directors to the U.S. Department of Commerce (NTIA), what will happen once the plan is received in Washington, D.C.? Read the remarks of Larry Strickling, NTIA (excerpt and in full below), at the ICANN-GAC Meeting, Marrrakech--

Lawrence E. Strickling, NTIA
Remarks of Larry Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, at the ICANN GAC High Level Governmental Meeting, Marrakech, Morocco, on March 7, 2016, (emphasis added)--

"I am pleased to be here today at the third GAC High Level Governmental Meeting ... Assuming final approval of the plan by chartering organizations in the next couple of days, we expect the [ICANN] Board to transmit the proposal to us this week. Once we receive the transition proposal, we will review it, hopefully within 90 days, to ensure it meets the criteria we outlined when we announced the transition. Let me remind all of you of the specific conditions that we said that the plan must satisfy. First, the proposal must support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, in that it should be developed by the multistakeholder community and have broad community support. More specifically, we will not accept a transition proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or intergovernmental organization solution. Second, the proposal must maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the domain name system. Third, it must meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services. And finally, it must maintain the openness of the Internet. As promptly as we can, we will carefully evaluate the proposal and measure it against the criteria. In this effort, we will be joined by other agencies of the U.S. government that will be impacted by the transition. We will also follow the recommendations of the U.S. General Accountability Office. The U.S. Congress has a strong interest in this proposal and we expect Congress to closely monitor and review the proposal as well as our evaluation of the plan...."

Full remarks of Ass't Sec. Strickling:



Note: Implementation has already started within ICANN in anticipation the plan will be approved--read more at ICANN: IANA Stewardship Transition Implementation.

Also note the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee has scheduled an IANA Transition Hearing for March 17.


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