IANA Stewardship Transition

In March 2014, the NTIA announced its intention to transition the stewardship of the IANA functions to the Internet community. The transition had been envisaged since ICANN was established, and the NRO had stated its support for such a process on many occasions.

To facilitate the transition, the various communities within ICANN were asked to produce proposals. The five RIRs, which worked together as the Internet Number Community, produced a proposal for the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) in response to the Request for Proposal (RFP), which was published on 3 September 2014.

The Number Community Proposal and the CRISP Team

The process began with consultations in each of the five RIR regions. The RIRs and their communities felt that the proposal could be achieved via an adaptation of the existing Global Policy Development Process (GPDP). A Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) Team, consisting of community representatives and RIR-appointed staff from each region, was convened to guide the development of the Number Community’s response. The Number Community Proposal incorporated input from all regions and submitted its proposal by the deadline of 15 January 2015

Contract Expiry

On 1 October 2016, the contract to perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions between ICANN and the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) expired. As a consequence, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for the IANA Numbering Services is now in effect.

New Working Relationship Formalised

This letter from Göran Marby, ICANN CEO, to the five RIRs formalises the start of the NRO’s/RIRs’ new relationship with IANA.

The IANA Stewardship Transition Archive

The entire transition process and regional outcomes were publicly documented on the NRO website. An archive is available here.

Last modified on 09/09/2020