Michael.Dillon@radianz.com wrote:
Who sets that policy? Actually, what is the national IR? National government? Who gives the national IR authority?
Do you know how nations get ccTLDs?
Hint: We have UN.
IANA and ICANN simply refer to the UPU list to decide whether or not to give out a ccTLD. They prefer to give the ccTLD to an administrator who has the support of the majority of Internet users in the ccTLD area and there is a dispute procedure to sort out arguments. If necessary, governments can win those disputes but it usually is not necessary for governments to get involved at all because the independent ccTLD organizations in most countries try to do a good enough job that nobody complains about them.
So, just as there are national NICs there can be national IRs. National IRs may nor may not be a part of a government. Masataka Ohta PS It's not UPU but ISO-3166, which is maintained by UN (security council). http://www.icann.org/icp/icp-1.htm : whose codes are assigned from a table known as ISO-3166-1, which is : maintained by an agency of the United Nations.