On 28 March the international Internet organization, ICANN, announced the rankings achieved by the applications it had received to take over administration of the Top Level Domain .net. The application from the German registry, DENIC, finished in fourth place. This decision, which is based on an evaluation of all applicants carried out by the American firm of technology consultants, Telcordia Technologies, caused reactions of surprise and bewilderment.

In an initial statement on the matter, Sabine Dolderer, a member of DENIC's Executive Board, said: "DENIC submitted a sophisticated and thoroughly thought-out application at the highest conceivable technical level. Moreover, we can manifestly show more than eleven years of experience and competence in administering the German Top Level Domain .de. Added to that, our concept was a convincing one, which would have brought about more competition between registries and greater international cooperation. The evaluators' report does not make it at all clear how other applicants were, nonetheless, awarded much better rankings."

More information in our Press Release.