The information is contained in a request for proposals from auctioneers to run an auction for .net and .com one- and two-character domains.
VeriSign has yet to make an official proposal to Icann through the Registry Service Evaluation Process for .com, but last week it submitted one regarding .net.
The request is unlikely to meet much opposition given that other top-level domains such as .biz and .jobs have been allowed to release the short domains.
Some two-character domains, such as bp.com, already exist. This is due to the fact that restrictions on reserving two-character domains only came in after the world wide web had taken off. The restriction was put in place to avoid confusion with country-codes.
According to VeriSign's website, the registry plans to announce its favoured auctioneer during the fourth quarter of this year. According to its proposal to Icann for .net, the registry favours "an English-style auction".
This means the auction of a particular domain will have no end date. The winner of the auction will be determined when no increasing bid has been made within a set period of time.
The possibility of owning a one- or two-character .com domain is likely to be of great interest for a number of organisations and brands and could see some large fees paid for the domains.
More information can be found here.
