Splinter Internet urged for Turkey
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A Turkish group seeking to improve communications technology is pushing the use of a splinter Internet network that might avoid control by the United States.
The Turkish Informatics Association's recommendation comes as the U.S. Commerce Department has announced it would indefinitely retain oversight of the Internet's main traffic-directing computers, known as root servers.
A federation of independent root operators, The Public-Root, is trying to become an alternative network with 13 root servers in 10 countries, including Turkey.
The Turkish Informatics Association and Amsterdam-based Unified Identity Technology want to use that alternative network to offer Internet addresses that end in a company or individual name -- such as "www.yourname" -- without ".com" or a country code like ".tr" for Turkey.
Although the primary selling point is an easy-to-remember address, "the system could also lead the way to an independent network for countries concerned about increasing interference of the United States," said Turhan Mentes, the Turkish group's chairman.
Other alternative root systems exist but most computers are configured to use the official system, which the U.S. Commerce Department oversees through the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.
Alternatives offer more flexibility in creating new suffixes but run the risk of fracturing the Internet such that two users typing the same domain name could reach entirely different Web sites, depending on where they are.
"All the benefits of a global interoperable Internet could be brought into question," ICANN spokesman Kieran Baker said.
Turkey's Telecommunications Authority said any decision is unlikely for several weeks. Mustafa Alkan, a senior official of the Telecommunications Authority, stressed that Turkey was not seeking to avoid U.S. scrutiny but rather ways to expand the use of the Internet in Turkey.
He said an alternative system, for example, could support addresses entirely in Turkish; currently, all names must end in an English string.
