Alliance Registry

Type:	Privately Held
Industry:	Domain Name Registry
Founded:	2007
Country:	United States
Key People
[Brian Cute]], Alliance Registry Director for .us

Alliance Registry also known as Domain Name Alliance Registry (DNAR) is a joint venture between GoDaddy, a domain registrar and webhosting company and Afilias, a global leader in providing internet infrastructure solutions.

Backgound

The business partnership between the two companies was created in response to the announcement of the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) on July 10, 2007 Request for Quotation (RFQ) to interested parties to become the new registry operators for the usTLD (.us), the country code top- level domain for the United States.

Based on the joint statement released by GoDaddy and Afilias on July 31, 2007, their objective is to boost the growth of usTLD by using superior technology enhanced marketing and improved administration.

Proposed usTLD Improvements

The Alliance Registry proposed the following improvements in its bid to become registry operator of the usTLD.

•Reduced pricing for usTLD registrations to make it more affordable and deliver greater value to the usTLD community

•Greater volume, growth, and usage of the usTLD stimulated by registry enhancements and marketing programs that have been proven effective by the joint owners of Alliance registry

•Enhanced locality space support to enable every city and town in America to have its own dedicated space within the usTLD (e.g. anytown.us)

•World class stability and security of the registry platform and DNS services supporting the domain

•Expanded administration services to facilitate oversight and provide better counsel for the DOC

•Enhancing kids.us so it becomes the feature-rich, safe online environment for America's children it was envisioned to be

Quotation Declined by DOC

Alliance Registry’s bid to operate the usTLD was declined by the DOC on October 18, 2007 and awarded the contract to Neustar, the incumbent usTLD registry operator. The agency cited that the company’s quote was “unacceptable under the financial fitness evaluation factor and excluded the company’s quotation competitive range.

Protest on DOC Decision

On November 13, 2007 Alliance Registry questioned the decision of the DOC to award the contract to Neustar. The company argued that their quotation was improperly excluded and evaluated by the agency. The protest prompted the agency to conduct re-evaluation of the company’s quotation and implemented corrective actions.

Result of the Protest

The result of the DOC’s re-evaluation process favored Neustar citing that its’ “rating exceeds, or is equal to DNAR’s and its quote was evaluated as having more “major strengths” and “significant strengths” than DNAR’s quote, and having fewer “minor weaknesses,” “major weaknesses,” and “significant weaknesses” than DNAR.”

At present, the domain allianceregistry.com is for sale.