AUSTRALIA'S peak domain registry said it would take a tilt at 24 generic top-level-domains (gTLDs) when the global names regulator begins accepting them early next year.
Adrian Kinderis, chief executive of AusRegistry, which operates Australia’s top level country code .au, said it expected to support bids by 15 partners seeking to register gTLDs, including .film, .money, .web and .phone.
"We have a lot of partners but a lot of them don’t want to be made public at this point. It doesn’t serve them any good unless they’re trying to get community support for the creation of their domain name," Mr Kinderis said.
If the bids are successful AusRegistry’s subsidiary, AusRegistry International, will provide registry operation services for the owners of the new domains.
The bids are far from won.
The internet’s peak naming and addressing authority ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) expects to start accepting applications for gTLDs by February 2010.
However it’s still working on the application policy for the new domains and there are serious divisions in the community about how the process should be regulated.
US start-up Film Registry is leading the bid for the .film domain but it has already established an agreement with AusRegistry, which will see the latter take control of registry functions for .film if the bid is successful.
Getting hold of a gTLD can be a rigorous and expensive process. Applications cost $US185,000 ($230,000) and applicants have to prove they have the technical capability to run critical infrastructure to ensure their domains are permanently available.
Other domain names in the sights of AusRegistry’s partners would be announced soon.
Comment on this Article
Printable Version
