>My main problem with this proposal is a reasoning behind it.  How is
>.biz.au different from .com.au?  .com denotes the domain is a commercial
>one.  .biz denotes it is a business?  In what way is this any different
>from .com.au?  Why not just have Internode and IInet competing with
>Melbourne IT in the .com.au space? (their delegation is non-exclusive)
>


I would be absolutely delighted to be offering a competing registry service
in the com.au name space. I'm sure Michael would too.

Just as soon as someone tells me when I can do that, I'll do that. Right now
my understanding is that there is no process for appointing a second and
subsequent DNA in the com.au space at this time. Just as soon as their is a
process, then something can happen there.

Meantime, in the com.au space, we return to the major issue there being that
I believe we as the customer community of Melbourne IT need to insist that
they withdraw the insistance that all existing names be revalidated at a
cost early in 1997 (see my previous mail on this topic), in order to
properly allow fair competition to occur in this namespace (i.e. to prevent
Melbourne IT establishing an unfair "lock" on all existing customers in that
name space when it comes to renewal time).

If you wouldn't mind telling me how I gain permission to fire up a competing
com.au registry any faster than waiting for the promised guidelines to turn
up in (I believe) mid January, I'm all ears.

Note that the BIZ.AU proposal is a *proposal* only - carries no standing
with Robert Elz or anyone else (yet). If this discussion prompts a more
rapid unlocking of the effectively exclusive delegation of com.au DNA at
this time, that's just fine with me. I don't personally think that com.au is
"full" yet, but I do also think there is a demand for alternate registries
for some part of the customer population will find them perfectly ok to use.
That might be BIZ.AU or ACN.AU (company ACN numbers - which I proposed quite
some time ago but haven't had a positive response to as yet), or any of the
various alternative 2LD's and 3LD's that people delegate names in (e.g
Ozemail seem to use AUST.COM, we use AUS.COM and ON.NET and ON.NET.AU,
RealNet access delegate into .NF, etc etc)

Simon

Simon
---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777