In an unsurprising move the French government has selected none less than AFNIC to stay the .FR Registry for another seven years. While the news will grant stability to the .FR market, opportunities for change may have been missed as the opening of the extension to European citizens is only contemplated for 2012.
"If it works don't fix it!". The official PR from the Ministry of Industry does not say so but the (re)apointing of AFNIC as the .FR Registry means that the French government did not see the need to replace the operator just for the sake of novelty. It is definitely a good thing for people using .FR domain names today as, over the years, AFNIC has shown stability and a certain capacity to adapt to technical challenges (EPP, IPv6 and DNSSEC to name just a few acronyms). It is, also, a good news for .FR Registrars: "better the devil you know" and AFNIC is actually better than most Registries at gathering input from them on Policy issues and putting Registry changes for debate.
It is, however, absolutely not a good thing for individuals and companies outside of France who need a .FR to promote a product or a service to the French market. The above PR proudly states that, in a few months, French citizens from abroad will be entitled to register a .FR. Readers would be forgiven to think it was already the case, but it is not: as of this writing, even French people leaving outside of France are not legally allowed to register a .FR! Yes it will change - and soon, according to the French ministry - but isn't it too little too late? As for the citizens of the European Union, whose flag is now proeminently featured in all official communications from the French government? No .FR for you yet, maybe in… 2012! It stands to reason that Registrants from outside Europe should not be too hopeful about getting a .FR anytime soon... And this is the true lost opportunity of this news.
As we said, AFNIC was as good as a Registry as any, perhaps even better on some level. However, reinforcing the existing body and establishing it under official Law may mean that .FR will never be equal to, say .DE or .UK, even if France has a better broadband penetration. This is not really a surprise: AFNIC always had a tendancy to "lock" the .FR: to a few, well identified names (only a few names could be registered by a company and no generics were allowed before 2001), to companies (no individuals allowed before 2004), to French residing in France (no French abroad before 2010). Granted, the Registry's policies have evolved but in several years increments and almost against its will: this "je ne sais quoi" that makes AFNIC so different than others and which, for many years have put its registration numbers behind Poland's .PL. Quality over Quantity? Perhaps, but one thing's for sure: today's news may comfort AFNIC in its historical ways… and we're not sure it's a win for anyone.