Advocates of the free and open Internet, take note. The United States will begin a process to relinquish its administrative control over of the Internet by September 2015, federal officials said late this afternoon.

Since the Internet was founded, the U.S. has managed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which oversees the catalog of unique IP addresses that makes the Internet possible.

Under U.S. control, the Internet to date has thrived as a free and open marketplace for the world. But in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations of U.S. spying, foreign countries, even those that have been historical allies, have lost trust in the U.S.