This is a general history of the SRS. For more specific information, including links to the many documents concerning this topic, please visit Background Documents for more detailed historical information and Documents You Must Submit and Review for current documents used in the accreditation process.

In October of 1998, the United States Department of Commerce ("DoC") and Network Solutions, Inc. ("NSI") amended their cooperative agreement, under which NSI had been the sole registrar and registry administrator for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains. This Amendment 11 required the establishment of a Shared Registration System in which an unlimited number of registrars would compete for domain name registration business utilizing one shared registry (for which NSI would continue to act as registry administrator).

In November of 1998, the DoC identified ICANN, a newly-formed, private, non-profit corporation as the entity that would oversee the transition to competition under the SRS. Part of ICANN's responsibilities included establishing and implementing a procedure for registrar accreditation that would ensure a transition to a competitive domain name registration system providing continued Internet stability and domain-name durability.

On March 4, 1999, the ICANN Board of Directors adopted a Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy, which grew out of the publicly posted Draft Guidelines for Registrar Accreditation and the comments received on the Draft Guidelines. The ICANN Board directed ICANN's Interim President and CEO to implement a program for registrar accreditation for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains consistent with the Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy.

Between March 11 and April 8, 1999, ICANN accepted applications from entities seeking accreditation to participate as one of the five domain name registrars in the SRS Testbed Program described in Amendment 11 to the DoC's cooperative agreement with NSI. Although originally scheduled to end on June 26, 1999, the Testbed Program was extended several times until its actual end date of November 30, 1999.

Since April 8, 1999, ICANN has continued to accept applications for registrar accreditation for the post-testbed period of the SRS, and has accredited over 160 businesses, in addition to the original five Testbed Program participants. For a list of all ICANN-accredited registrars, please visit <http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html>.

On 17 May 2001, ICANN posted the current version of of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, which is now in effect for all accredited registrars.

ICANN is currently accepting applications for registrar accreditation on a rolling basis. There is no limit on the number of companies that can become accredited registrars and there is no deadline for ICANN registrar accreditation applications.

For additional information, including details about how to become an accredited registrar, please review the Registrar Accreditation: Overview.