IMPORTANT NOTE: Phone Numbers Now Mandatory for all .BIZ and .US Contacts

After an internal review of Registry operations, NeuStar and NeuLevel have discovered that the ICANN Registry Agreement unintentionally contains conflicting information with respect to the collection and dissemination of telephone numbers within the contractually required WHOIS service.

As a result of this discovery, effective July 1, 2004, all .BIZ and .US contacts must contain valid phone numbers; new contact creates lacking this information will fail. In addition, all updates to existing contacts will fail if the phone number field is blank. If you have not already done so, please review all of your domain contacts to ensure that each contains a phone number.

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kids.us Goes to Washington

On May 6, Richard Tindal (VP of Registry Services) testified before the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The hearing was titled "The Dot Kids Internet Domain: Protecting Children Online," and its purpose was to discuss implementation of the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (the "Dot Kids Act").

Mr. Tindal's testimony outlined the successful launch of the kids.us domain, covered the latest statistics for kids.us registrations, and provided an overview of NeuStar's 2004 kids.us marketing campaign designed to increase awareness, content and usage of kids.us domain names.

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NTIA to Host Half-day kids.us Forum

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will host a half-day forum from 9:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 to discuss the development of the kids.us Internet domain. The forum will detail the current uses and applications of the domain and the development of attractive content for the space.

NeuStar will participate by providing a 10-minute introduction to NeuStar as the Registry operator of the kids.us domain, followed by a 20-minute presentation on the process for registering and activating a kids.us website. Members of Congress, online child-safety organizations, Congressional staff, community groups, Internet filtering and blocking technology providers, and hardware and software developers have been invited to participate in the forum and its two panel discussions. Panelists also will include representatives from current and prospective providers of content within the kids.us domain.

The first panel will address the current state of kids.us by discussing a number of issues such as the current uses of the website by parents and educators; future sites; and how filtering and blocking technology can be used in conjunction with kids.us. The second panel will address the process of developing a site in the kids.us domain, as well as lessons learned from current content providers, challenges for future content providers, and what resources exist to assist would-be content providers.

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.BIZ and .US Website Spotlights

www.belgard.biz
Since 1995, a network of manufacturing facilities across the United States and Canada has produced high-quality Belgard paving and garden wall products (such as driveways, walkways and patios), which compliment any residential or commercial landscape. A complete product catalog, dealer locator and photo gallery of finished projects are included on this site.

www.earlyamerica.us
Exploring the rich history of Colonial Williamsburg has never been easier. This site takes visitors on a guided tour of the fabled Virginia town, offering in-depth looks at the people, places and events that shaped our nation's heritage. Interactive features add depth and richness to the learning experience.

www.sportsmanager.us
From baseball, football and basketball to soccer, hockey, lacrosse and more, this site enables registered users to manage their sports arenas, tournaments, camps, playoffs or leagues online. Users can organize registrations, create schedules, update standings, build tournament brackets in any playoff structure, accept electronic payments and collect scores automatically.

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Mark Your Calendars: Upcoming Maintenance Outage

Please note that the NeuLevel and NeuStar Registries will be performing maintenance during the weekend of July 18, 2004. This maintenance will require an extended outage lasting approximately 18 hours.

Be advised that the outage times have been changed since the last announcement. The maintenance will now begin at 0100 UTC on Sunday, July 18, and will end at approximately 1900 UTC on the same day. Please make a note of this change. Additional information and reminders will be sent in the coming days.

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Coming Soon: IDN.BIZ Domain Names

NeuLevel will soon introduce IDN.BIZ domain names, or domain names featuring foreign language characters. German script will be the first language to be introduced in the .BIZ TLD. With the introduction of German script IDN names, registrars will be able to offer their customers the ability to register domain names containing the IDN characters ä, ö, and ü.

More information on the launch of IDN.BIZ domain names will be provided to registrars in the coming weeks. For additional information, please contact Fernando España via phone at +1 571.434.5741 or via email at fernando.espana@neulevel.biz.

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.CN Pricing Now More Favorable for Channel Partners

The price of .CN names has been decreased from $22.00 to $17.00. There's never been a better time to introduce your customers to the rapidly expanding Chinese marketplace! Contact Fernando España via phone at +1 571.434.5741 or via email at fernando.espana@neulevel.biz for more details.

Global News Wire reports that statistics show that 340,000 country code top-level domain (ccTLD) names are currently registered in China, with more than 160,000 of those names added in 2003, a 89.4 percent increase over the previous year. Furthermore, for every 17 of those new domain names, there are 16 .CN domain names, meaning that .CN has officially surpassed .com as the most popular domain in China.

China's Internet connectivity is currently ranked second in the world, and shows a steady growth rate. The country had 79.5 million Internet users at the end of 2003, according to the 13th report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

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