In a press release issued today an announcement has been made about the Alliance Registry, a joint venture between Afilias and Go Daddy, which is stated to combine the best in secure technology and marketing capabilities to revitalize the .US top-level domain name. The following is the copy of the press release:

GoDaddy.com, Inc. and Afilias USA, Inc., have teamed up to create The Domain Name Alliance Registry, LLC ("Alliance Registry"), a joint venture seeking to assume stewardship of the usTLD, America’s sovereign space on the Internet. Yesterday, Alliance Registry submitted a proposal in response to the request for quotations issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for a registry operator for the usTLD.

“Today, the usTLD ranks 9th among the world’s country code domains, despite America’s leadership of the Internet and the most robust domain growth market in history. Now is the time to change usTLD leadership and put it on a growth track,” said Roland LaPlante, Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. Added Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s President and Chief Operating Officer, “We believe Alliance Registry pools the strengths of its partners, Go Daddy and Afilias, to offer usTLD superior technology, enhanced marketing, and focused administration to improve this critical national resource.”

The bid submitted by Alliance Registry includes several key elements that would improve the .us domain registry, both in technological security and marketing tactics. Over the past 6 years, the .us domain has underperformed relative to its international competition and Alliance Registry has the resources and the capabilities to make major improvements. Some of these improvements include:

• Reduced pricing for usTLD registrations to make them more affordable and deliver greater value to the usTLD community

• Greater volume, growth, and usage of the usTLD stimulated by registry enhancements and marketing programs that have been proven to work by Alliance Registry’s joint owners

• Enhanced Locality space support to enable every city and town in America to have its own dedicated space within the usTLD (e.g. anytown.us)

• World class stability and security of the registry platform and DNS services supporting the domain

• Expanded administration services to facilitate oversight and provide better counsel for the DoC

Enhancing kids.us so it becomes the feature-rich, safe online environment for America’s children it was envisioned to be

In addition, the proposal outlines a proven plan to ensure a smooth transition, based on the experience of its partner Afilias in transitioning numerous top-level domains and with Go Daddy’s experience in ensuring harmless data transitions for consumers. DoC is expected to award the new contract by September, with the administrator taking full responsibility of the usTLD when the contract with the current provider expires on October 26, 2007.

During a news tele-conference earlier today, Brian Cute, Alliance Registry’s new Director of .us activities said, “This is an exciting opportunity for us to work closely with DoC to realize the full potential of the usTLD.” He continued, “We believe it’s time for a change, and Alliance Registry is uniquely positioned to take usTLD to its rightful position as a leading country code domain.”