By the way, in North America the registry for nationwide telephone numbers
(i.e., area codes, toll-free numbers, and special services) is operated in
this very fashion. The FCC chartered an industry group called the North
American Numbering Council, which supervises the North American Numbering
Plan administrator (the registry). This function was recently put out to
bid and moved from Bellcore (to my knowledge the only company that's every
held the position) to Lockheed Martin in January.
NANC is at http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/Nanc/ and NANPA is at http://www.nanpa.com.
This model has been a very effective one for the north american number space.
One proposal that would be consistent with the GP and achieve these
objectives would be to have new-IANA hire the registry operators directly
on a fixed-term basis, and put the public oversight functions there.
-- Steve Peterson +1 612 386 3986 Principal Consultant FAX +1 650 429-2084 Virtation Technologies, Inc. http://virtation.com