The French government has called for tenders from organisations interested in managing the .fr registry for seven years.
The call for tenders follows a public consultation launched in April 2008, whose results were published by Luc Chatel, the Minister for Consumer Affairs and Industry, in October 2008.
The call for tenders was a surprise, with Stephane van Gelder noting, â[t]hat the government would even consider replacing AFNIC surprised many in France, especially as it has a cast iron majority on the AFNIC board, of which I have been an elected member since 2004.â
Parties interested in submitting a tender document have until March 8, 2009. For the first 25 days of the tender process, until February 9, interested parties are able to submit questions to the government, with answers being made publicly available at www.telecom.gouv.fr.
For more information, see the government announcement (in French) here.
To register a .fr domain name, check out Europe Registry here.