ICANN and Verisgn complete negotiations for the root zone maintainer services agreement

ICANN has announced that it had completed the discussions and negotiations with Verisign for the root zone maintainer services agreement (RZMA). The agreement was concluded in anticipation of the release of Verisign from root zone management obligations by NTIA; it therefore sets the framework for Verisign to continue to perform the root zone management functions on the basis of a commercial contract with ICANN. According to NTIA, the transition of its role associated with root zone management is a process separate from but parallel to the IANA stewardship transition. The RZMA establishes, among others, a set of service level requirements for Verisign to process, edit, generate, and publish the root zone file.