ARIN and ICANN
The InterNIC project included IP number assignment, ASN assignment, and reverse DNS zone management tasks until December 1997 when the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) came into operation. At that time, responsibility for these tasks was transferred by the National Science Foundation for these tasks from the InterNIC project to ARIN via modification of the cooperative agreement with Network Solutions.
In 1998 both IANA and InterNIC were reorganized under the control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California non-profit corporation contracted by the US Department of Commerce to manage a number of Internet-related tasks. The role of operating the DNS system was privatized, and opened up to competition, while the central management of name allocations would be awarded on a contract tender basis.
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