NSI

Industry:	Domain Name Registration
Founded:	1979
Headquarters:	Herndon, VA, United States
Website:	networksolutions.com
Twitter:	@netsolcares
Key People
Tim Kelly - President & CEO

Work of NSI in Domain Name Registry

NSI at first functioned as an administrator for domain name registry along with U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) under a sub-contract in 1991. NSI issued free .com, .gov, .org, .mil, .edu and .net along with free Internet Protocol address blocks. NSI in 1993 became the sole company to be registrar of top level domain names. The grant was provided by National Science Foundation after a bidding process in which NSI was a sole bidder. With this grant NSF was the sole registrar for Top Level Domain Names (TLDs), it also maintained a central database for the assigned Domain Names called the WHOIS. This improved monopoly of NSI in the domain name registration. The permission given by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to charge fees for the domain name registration from the applicants led NSI to levy hefty charges on the costumers applying for Domain Names. In 1995 NSI charged $100 for two years registration. Later overwhelmed by the increasing monopoly of NSI, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) amended its contract with NSI and forced NSI to provide domain name registration to competing registrars at wholesale prices, rather than the regular rate of $34.99 per year the amount it still charges today. DOC and NSF also assisted to the formation of a new organization which will oversee the registration of domain names and their accreditation. This new organization was aimed to reduce the monopoly of NSI in the domain name registration business and allow new private organizations a market place for the entry into this business. The organization was named as Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

National Science Foundation