Despite the stated technical merits of a single root, I think one needs to reflect on the implications that a few of the world's largest ISPs appear to have made a business decision to use a superset of the ICANN/US Department of Commerce's root zone.

Which big ones? I've never seen any official message about this.

See www.new.net/about_us_partners.tp. Earthlink and Netzero have been listed as the US' second and third largest ISPs (according to http://www.ispworld.com/isp/TRI_census.htm). That's not even counting Excite@Home.

It's claimed that the US had about 100 million Internet users in December 2000. According to New.net's numbers (which needs to be confirmed), about 16% of those can now use their alternative root.

I've seen various claims by various alternative root operators. None have been confirmed by independent research as far as I know.

New.net claims that 16 million users can resolve their TLDs based on their partnerships with ISPs (like I said, this needs to be confirmed independently). 16 million of 100 million is 16%. Robert -- Robert Shaw <robert.shaw@itu.int> ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor International Telecommunication Union <http://www.itu.int> Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland