Comments draft RfP

[Sabine Dolderer/Denic <dolderer@xxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,

DENIC is committed to hand in a high quality application backed by a  sound 
business case to ensure best value for the .net
registrars. On the business case side of the transfer of .net  operations it 
would be helpful for  registrars and registrants as
well as for the new .net registry provider  to understand how registration fees 
paid in advance to Verisign  will be handled. We
understand that .net registrars are currently  required to pay the registration 
fee to Verisign for 12 months in advance. There  is
even the option to pay upfront for several years. When the new .net registry  
provider will provide the service starting in July
2005, about 50% of the fees  for the next 12 months have already been paid to 
Verisign. This would sum up to  about 15 million US$
fees that registrands  and registrars have already paid to Verisign for 
services that the new  .net registrar will provide. Two
options to  handle this seem to be obvious:

1. Refund the already paid amount to registrars and  registrand
2. Transfer alreay paid fees to the new .net  operators

Please clarify what is the approach ICANN will follow in  this matter?


Furthermore, please specify the  required electronic format of the application 
in the final RfP document  (html, pdf, word).

Sabine


--
Sabine  Dolderer
DENIC eG
Wiesenhüttenplatz 26
D-60329 Frankfurt

eMail: Sabine.Dolderer@xxxxxxxx
Fon: +49 69 27235 0
Fax: +49 69 27235 235