RIPE NCC and ICANN Commit to Ongoing DNS Root Name Service Coordination

[Apologies for duplicates]

Dear Colleagues,

Dr. Paul Twomey, CEO of ICANN, has posted an open letter to Axel Pawlik,
Managing Director of the RIPE NCC, noting ICANN's appreciation of the
role RIPE NCC plays as operator of k.root-servers.net, or simply K-root,
one of the 13 Internet root name servers.

The letter was sent in response to letters sent by the RIPE NCC,
Autonomica, operator of I-root, and WIDE Project, operator of M-root,
to ICANN in May 2009.

The letter notes that both ICANN and the RIPE NCC acknowledge "that a
single, unique DNS root is paramount to the stable operations of the
Internet and to ensure global interoperability", and that "close ICANN
coordination with the root-server operators provides a foundation for a
secure, stable and resilient DNS."

ICANN and the RIPE NCC have jointly committed to "coordinating their
respective activities regarding the DNS root name service with each
other and third parties". This includes "exchanging and maintaining the
necessary operational and administrative contact information, notifying
each other without undue delay of any (pending) operational changes or
any (pending) changes in their respective activities".

You can view the full text of the letter from ICANN to the RIPE NCC at:
http://ripe.net/news/icann-kroot-reply.pdf

The text of the May 2009 letter from the RIPE NCC to ICANN can be found
here:
http://ripe.net/news/root-server-statement-to-icann.html

More information about RIPE NCC's operation of K-root is available at:
http://k.root-servers.org/

Regards,

Paul Rendek
Head of External Relations and Communications
RIPE NCC