As of December, , including country codes and generic extensions such as .com and .net, VeriSign said. ICANN's new gTLD plan could increase the number of domains by a factor of five.

ICANN held an open comment period last fall for corporations, government and individuals to comment on its plan to add anywhere from 200 to 800 new domain name extensions to the Internet. Comments were due Dec. 15.

Most corporations urged ICANN to postpone or cancel the new gTLD program because it will be too costly for them to protect their trademarks across so many new extensions. They also worry that so many new domains will lead to a rise in counterfeiting, phishing and other online scams.

Another big concern is cost. ICANN has proposed charging $185,000 for a new gTLD and $75,000 a year to retain it. That will make it too expensive for companies to buy all of the extensions for their trademarks -- i.e. .microsoft or .ibm -- and it's also too expensive for governments that might want to buy .paris or .nyc.

The Commerce Department sent to ICANN in December stating that ICANN needs to conduct an economic study of the TLD market prior to the introduction of new gTLDs. The agency also said ICANN should review the impact of new gTLDs on the security and stability of the Internet and justify its fee structure.