Energy pipeline company National Grid Transco has outsourced the management of its domain names to prevent cyber-squatting and improve efficiency.

The company, which was formed in October by the merger of Lattice Group and The National Grid, now owns over 800 domain names.

Peter Gibbs, information officer for intellectual property at National Grid Transco, told vnunet.com that the registration, renewal and payment process was becoming too complex to manage in-house.

"We have several hundred domain names now and one of the problems is renewals," he explained. "They had to be renewed on an individual basis, so it is easier if someone else does it."

Instead of individually renewing domain names through websites by credit card, National Grid Transco is now billed quarterly by NetNames, a registrar for generic top level domains.

Accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, NetNames monitors all National Grid Transco's domains, ensuring that they are renewed and not allowed to lapse.

This reduces the risk of a cyber-squatter gaining control of one of the company's domains and holding it to ransom, according to Gibbs.

"It is impossible to stop cyber-squatting but the best thing is to avoid it by registering all the names and we do register variations and various permutations," he said.

The agreement with NetNames covers all new top level domains, including .biz and .info, and variations that National Grid Transco has registered.

Other organisations using the Platinum Service from NetNames include Egg, British Airways and the De Beers Group.

"The Platinum Service has been developed specifically with large corporations like National Grid Transco in mind," said Rodger Armstrong, sales and marketing director at NetNames.

"They want to have total control over their domain name portfolio and ensure that their online intellectual property is fully protected."