CircleID

Michael Berkens reporting in TheDomains.com: "The new gTLD .APP sold for $25 Million to Google today in a ICANN Last Resort Auction which I think is very good news for the new gTLD program in general. This is the highest price paid in an ICANN Last Resort Auction. It looks like Google was willing to pay over $30 Million based on the info published by ICANN..." ›››

Washington Post – The Federal Communications Commission approved strict new rules for Internet providers Thursday in a historic vote that represents the government's most aggressive attempt to make sure the Web remains a level playing field. ›››

A new study by Facebook-led Internet.org, called "State of Connectivity: A Report on Global Internet Access," takes a look at the current state of global internet connectivity, who’s connected, who’s not and why. The paper uses existing data and incorporates its own new findings to examine internet penetration and barriers to further growth. "By early 2015, 3 billion people will be online. This is an incredible milestone, but it also means that only 40% of the world’s population has ever connected to the internet." ›››

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will meet this Wednesday at 1000 local time to grill Chehade and others on the plan to remove the US government from the current triumvirate responsible for managing changes to the DNS root zone under the IANA arrangements..." ›››

External Source – Mehmet Akcin writes: "One performance metric on which we all focus is: How fast is my service? Let me be more specific here, by "fast" we mean that when a DNS query is made, an answer is provided quickly to a DNS client. We call this query resolution time. We are going to be running several tests in upcoming months that focus on DNS performance for various systems. This first analysis is about the performance of DNS root servers." ›››

AFNIC has released an article providing a global overview of TLDs in 2014 and some thoughts about market prospects in 2015 and 2016. ›››

DomainIncite – A new Universal Acceptance Steering Group has formed, with the support of ICANN and the Domain Name Association, to help fix many of the compatibility problems facing new gTLD registrants today. "The basic problem is that these new types of domains and email addresses just break stuff," Google's Brent London said during a UASG meeting at the ICANN meeting in Singapore last week. ›››

On Monday, 9 November 2015, the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) will hold its 10th annual symposium in João Pessoa, Brazil. The event will take place one day before and in the same location as the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). ›››

In a statement released today, the Internet Society says during its Board meeting 14-15 February, the Board of Trustees praised the progress made by the global Internet community on the IANA stewardship transition and emphasized that a successful transition will reinforce the value of the collaborative, multistakeholder model. ›››

A series of internships have been set up to facilitate capacity building for registrars and registries in Africa to boost the African domain name business. Launched by ICANN in partnership with AFRINIC, the first phase of the DNS Business Exchange Programme involved interns selected from ICANN accredited registrars. ›››

The Register – The world's governments have told domain name overseer ICANN that its processes are "complex, lengthy and ambiguous" and warned that they may be ineffective at dealing with domain-name abuse or fraud. The extraordinary statement comes in the official communiqué of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN, published today following a week-long meeting in Singapore. ›››

Singapore's Minister of Communications and Information, Dr. Yaacob bin Ibrahim, and former Senior Advisor to President Bill Clinton, Ira Magaziner, spoke to the success of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance during the Opening Ceremony of ICANN's 52nd public meeting today... ›››

Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman, Tom Wheeler, today in an open letter in the Wired Magazine writes: "After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question has arrived..." ›››

Sources are reporting that Tom Wheeler, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, is widely expected this week to propose regulating Internet service similar to a public utility -- a move certain to unleash another round of intense debate and lobbying about how to ensure so-called net neutrality, or an open Internet. ›››

British Telecom has announced its plan to transform the UK broadband landscape from superfast to ultrafast. The company says it plans to deliver much faster broadband for homes and small businesses via a widespread deployment of “G.fast” -- a technology the company will test in two pilot locations starting this Summer. G.fast is aimed to help BT deliver ultrafast speeds of up to 500Mbps to most of the UK within a decade. Deployment will start in 2016–2017, subject to the pilots being successful, BT says. ›››

BBC – The Army is setting up a new unit that will use psychological operations and social media to help fight wars "in the information age". Head of the Army General Sir Nick Carter said the move was about trying to operate "smarter". The 77th Brigade, made up of reservists and regular troops and based in Hermitage, Berkshire, will be formally created in April. It has been inspired by the Chindits who fought in Burma in World War Two. ›››

According to news sources Google's fiber-to-the-home service is expanding to four additional cities: Atlanta; Nashville, Tennessee; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Google Fiber currently is available in Kansas City, Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah. At a price tag of $80 per month, the service offers speeds around 10 times greater than that of the average Internet connection. ›››

The Internet Society has released an announcement setting out its views on the development of policy to address the balance between security and privacy. From an Internet perspective and in the context of the growing threat vector from hacking, targeted cyber attacks on networks and individuals, and surveillance, the Internet Society's approach to the development of cyber security policy initiatives is based on the following key considerations. ›››

Facebook's Internet.org has launched a free Internet application in Colombia as part of a drive to bring developing markets online. Colombia is the first nation in Latin America and the fourth in the world to receive the new Internet.org service, in partnership with local mobile phone provider Tigo, but the aim is to push the app globally. The mobile app, aimed at low income and rural users, offers more than a dozen tools via the Android operating system... ›››

Elon Musk has announced plans for a space project to provide faster, cheaper Internet access around the globe. The $15 billion plan would use hundreds of satellites placed 750 miles above the Earth, far lower than existing communications satellites. Doing so would speed up the transfer of data and give better coverage to three billion people who do not have it. ›››