The US Government has awarded ICANN a new contract to manage the Internet, ending six months of uncertainty after it refused to renew the previous contract, instead opting to give ICANN only a six month extension.
Under the contract, awarded by the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), ICANN will continue to perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions.
According to ICANN this role requires: “The global coordination of unique identifiers that keep the Internet running smoothly [including] the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters; the administration of certain responsibilities associated with the Internet Domain Name Service (DNS) root zone management; the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and other services related to the management of the ARPA and INT top-level domains (TLDs).”