(IDG) -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved 10 new registrars to sell Internet addresses for the popular .com, .net and .org domains, bringing the total number of accredited companies to 98, ICANN officials said in a statement.

Until the first registrars were accredited in June this year, registration services for those three 'top-level domains' were handled by Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Va., under an exclusive 1992 contract with the U.S. government.

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The explosion in Internet use has turned the arcane business of registering Internet addresses into a highly profitable one. ICANN was formed in 1998 to shepherd in a competitive registration system, with the goals of improving services for users and introducing some global representation.

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Accredited registrars must sign an agreement with NSI and show they have met certain technical requirements before they actually start registering addresses. According to information on ICANN's Web site, 22 companies so far are operational.

The 10 companies named today are 7Ways of France; CADVision of Canada, which does business as GetDomain.com; Cydian Technologies, DomainZoo, Go Daddy Software, Parava Networks and Talk.Com, all of the U.S.; pair Networks, which does business as pairNIC, of the U.S., U.K. and Germany; Xin Net of China, and YesNIC of the Republic of Korea.

Separately, ICANN announced earlier this week that Cairo will play host to its next round of meetings, scheduled for March 2000. A schedule will be posted on ICANN's Web site, as it becomes available.

ICANN has its head offices in Marina del Rey, Calif.

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