Application Comment Details

Re: USTelecom Dish .MOBILE Comments

The United States Telecom Association (USTelecom) is the United States’ premier trade association representing service providers and suppliers for the domestic telecommunications industry. Its diverse member base ranges from large publicly traded communications corporations to small companies and cooperatives – all providing advanced communications services to both urban and rural markets.

USTelecom shares CTIA’s serious concerns regarding the potential for abuse and misuse of new generic top level domains (“gTLDs”), those in which the gTLD represents an entire industry or business, where the ownership, operation and availability of the gTLD is controlled by a single industry competitor. To that end, USTelecom has filed a Community Objection against Dish DBS Corporation’s (“Dish”) application for a “closed” .PHONE gTLD. That objection remains active at the International Chamber of Commerce.

USTelecom writes here to support CTIA’s showing that Dish’s recent amendment to its application for the formerly similarly closed .MOBILE gTLD falls far short of ensuring that the Mobile Wireless Community and other interested third parties, including USTelecom members will not be harmed if Dish is delegated the string. Dish’s anticompetitive efforts are strikingly illustrated by these parallel applications seeking unwarranted power over important and commonly used industry terms.

Dish’s latest amendment does nothing/little to reduce the likelihood of abuse of .MOBILE domain names by Dish, abuse which could implicate the antitrust laws. As CTIA has pointed out, Dish’s proposed non-discrimination standard is unduly qualified and riddled with holes, Dish retains the right to exploit exclusive registry privileges such as allocating to itself and its affiliates the most valuable of the .MOBILE domain names, and Dish provides absolutely no visible and objective mechanisms or procedures to ensure the ability of the Mobile Wireless Community, including USTelecom members, to monitor Dish’s conduct and detect violations of its self-claimed “pro-competitive” standards in .MOBILE.

USTelecom therefore emphatically agrees that ICANN should require Dish to adopt a detailed Public Interest Commitment (PIC) as described by CTIA to ensure that this key ICANN-established mechanism is available to make Dish’s commitments effective and enforceable by aggrieved members of the Mobile Wireless Community and other interested third parties, including USTelecom members should Dish not provide as promised “open and non-discriminatory access to .MOBILE domain names.”

USTelecom likewise urges ICANN to mandate that CTIA be permitted to participate in all discussions involving ICANN and Dish regarding the .MOBILE amendment and PIC on a full, fair and equal footing on behalf of the Mobile Wireless Community.

Respectfully submitted,

Kevin G. Rupy

Vice President, Law & Policy