The emergence of a fourth trade association claiming to advocate in the interests of the nation's Internet service providers has the country's other querulous industry lobbies in a pique.
y object because the new Ukrainian National Internet Association was founded by state‑run phone monopoly Ukrtelekom and three of its subsidiaries: long‑distance phone company Utel, mobile phone operator Ukrainian Mobile Communications and Infocom, an ISP. Kyiv ISP Lucky Net is also a founding member.
The older associations fear the interloper will present itself as a representative of the nation’s entire industry but work primarily for the benefit of the industry’s heavy‑hitters.
Plans for the new association were made public earlier this month by Yury Korzh, general director of Global Ukraine, an Internet service provider.
Smaller Internet firms have been represented by three advocacy associations: Kyiv‑based Internet Association of Ukraine, Odessa‑based Association of Ukraine’s Internet Market Participants (known as AURIU) and the Ukrainian Association of IP Telephony Providers.
“It is obvious to the entire industry that the formation of this new association was initiated by Ukrtelekom and that it will, as a result, largely represent the interest of this company and its subsidiaries,” said InAU President Oleksandr Olshansky.
Not so, says Global Ukraine’s Korzh. UNIA can provide better representation for the industry’s interests and fill a void created by the nearly year‑long power struggle between InAU and AURIU.
“We believe this new association will be really able to make a difference by effectively lobbying for the industry’s interests,” Korzh said.
Korzh said that membership in UNIA is open to any Internet company.
“This association will be listened to,” he said.
Global Ukraine’s Korzh defended Ukrtelekom’s involvement in the new association. “Ukrtelekom is a communications company. It has more clients than any other IT firm, and it has the right to be represented,” Korzh said.
He also said that the telecom giant wants to support smaller firms.
“It is in Ukrtelekom’s interest to support the broad interests of all IT firms, including smaller ones, which are often clients of Ukrtelekom,” he said.
Olshansky said the InAU would continue to represent the interests of its members.
Two of the three existing associations – InAU and AURIU – have been feuding over how Web sites ending in .ua should be controlled. Hostmaster Ltd., a private company, regulates Web sites in the .ua domain. Hostmaster obtained administrative control over the top‑level .ua domain from ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, during the early 1990s.
InAU has been supportive of Hostmaster, while AURIU has fiercely protested its control over the .ua Web addresses.
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The total number of third‑level Ukrainian domain names (for instance: name.kiev.ua) reached about 90,000 in 2001, Hostmaster Ltd. Director Borys Mostovy told Interfax‑Ukraine.
Mostovy said that about 22,500 of the third‑level names are registered in the com.ua domain, up 100 percent since last year.
Only about 117 second‑level domains (name.ua) have been registered since they first became available last fall, he added.
Roman Olearchyk can be reached at [email protected].
