The International Domain Name (IDN) extension for United Arab Emirates’ .ae (“Emarat”), is now in Sunrise.

The امارات. top-level domain may be registered by applicants backed by trademarks until December 15, 2010, and provides an opportunity for companies to communicate and advertise to a targeted Arab audience that may have been reluctant due to a language barrier to use the Internet.

101domain is an accredited registrar for .ae and امارات. extensions though aeDA.  Visit our dotEmarat registration page to begin securing your trademark, or you may register a .ae ccTLD now.

On Wednesday it was announced  that beginning registration of  Saudi Arabia  Arabic IDN ccTLD  domain names will go through he following phases:

1^st PHASE:  May 30-June 16   Government entities

2^nd PHASE:  Sept 27- Oct 27 -   the entities and people will be allowed to register the trademarks and intellectual properties they own.

3^rd PHASE :  Nov 14   Generic names of hotels and tourism agencies

4^th PHASE:   GO LIVE  DECEMBER 11

As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) roadmap, government entities will be able to register their names in the first phase, while entities and people will be allowed to register the trademarks and intellectual properties they own in the second phase.

Generic names, of hotels and tourism agencies, can be registered in the third phase.  Public registrations will be open on a first-come-first-serve basis.  In the event that multiple applicants register for an attractive domain name, there will be an open auction to select the winner.

According to several sources, most notably the .me registry itself, the .me ccTLD of Montenegro is the fastest growing ccTLD in the last year. It recently reached 250,000 registrations and said the following in a press release announcing that it has hit the quarter million mark:

The .ME Registry announced today its popular ccTLD extension has hit 250,000 domains registered. Montenegro’s .ME Registry has seen significant growth since it launched the domain extension worldwide just over one year ago. In fact, .ME is the fastest growing new ccTLD.
JamesCrocker.Me, registered through GoDaddy.com, was the name which pushed the Registry’s portfolio to the quarter-million milestone.

The .ME domain extension has proven to be incredibly popular worldwide. More than 48,000 applications were received to participate in the current online auction of .ME domains which ends in just a few days. The next online auction, hosted by NameJet.com, is scheduled to begin June 5.

Source: http://www.domain.me/news.php?&news=170

The release goes on to talk about how the success of the .ME extension is due, in large part, to its wide appeal in use for marketing/brand and personal use. Many individuals have registered their names in the .me extension, and several popular sites, including popular dating site Youand.me have used the extension as part of their site/brand name.

Want to get a .ME domain for yourself or your company? 101domain offers .me domain registration for only $39 per year, and there are no restrictions or requirements to register a .me domain name. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our helpful support staff, who can assist you in registering your .ME domain.

After a long wait for many, the .MX Sunrise period officially begins tomorrow, May 1st.  If you didn’t take advantage of 101domain’s pre-registration period, and want to get the .mx version of your existing .com.mx domain name, then now is the time to do it.

As a review for those who didn’t catch our newsletter or various announcements about the reopening of the .MX TLD, the sunrise period allows current holders of .com.mx domains ONLY to register the equivalent .MX domains before the TLD is made publically available.  This restriction will be lifted when the landrush period begins on September 1, 2009.

101domain received hundreds of pre-registrations that are ready to be pushed the minute the sunrise period begins, but if you didn’t take advantage of that special offer, you can still try and get your .mx domain name during this sunrise period.  Whatever you do, don’t wait for the public launch to try and upgrade your .MX SLDs, because you will miss out and they will be scooped up quickly.

We are continuing our pre-registration pricing special of $35 to those looking to upgrade, so take advantage and contact us today to get it taken care of – register your .mx domain now!

Nov 15- .CM General registrations begin

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a function performed by ICANN in accordance with its obligations under contract with the U.S. Government, is responsible for the delegation of top-level domains in the DNS root.

IANA relies upon the ISO 3166-1 standard, and specifically the alpha-2 codes contained therein, for definition of two-letter codes that may be used for country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs). IANA allocates ccTLD operators based upon their ability to meet delegation criteria, which includes the ability to demonstrate local support, and technical competency requirements.

Whilst this practice is relatively straightforward for the establishment and ongoing operation of assigned codes, IANA has no formally defined process on how to decommission a country-code top-level domain when it is retired from the “officially assigned” state in the ISO 3166 database.

To date, in the case where a code has been replaced by one or more new codes, IANA has advised the relevant operators that the old code would need to be retired and that they should develop plans to do so¹. However, IANA has not aggressively pursued the affected operators to conclude the decommissioning process.

IANA is seeking to review its practices associated with top-level domains which have been revoked from the officially assigned list, and more specifically, top-level domains which have been replaced by a new country code.

A select list of ISO 3166-1 alterations that help illustrate the dimension of the issue are:

1. Zaire’s (“ZR”) renaming to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“CD”).
2. The breakup of the Soviet Union resulting in the code “SU” being replaced with codes for the independent states, such as “RU”, “BY”, and “UA”. Every former soviet state has a new code, which been allocated to an operator by IANA.
3. East Timor’s code changing from “TP” to “TL”.
4. Czechoslovakia’s (“CS”) division into the Czech Republic (“CZ”) and Slovakia (“SK”).
5. The remaining components of Yugoslavia (“YU”) becoming Serbia and Montenegro (“CS”). Following a referendum, in September 2006 Serbia and Montenegro further split into two independent identities Serbia (“RS”) and Montenegro (“ME”).

The ISO 3166 standard also has codes which are “exceptionally reserved”, in essence meaning they are special allocations that may be used under certain circumstances. In that category, IANA presently has delegations for three of these codes:

• The United Kingdom (“GB”) have elected to use the exceptionally reserved code of UK as its primary ccTLD.
• The European Union have been delegated the exceptionally reserved code of EU.
• Ascension Island is delegated the exceptionally reserved code of AC.

Whilst IANA has overseen the successful transition of “ZR” to “CD”, domains such as “SU” and “TP” still exist in the DNS root.

Some of the relevant issues to consider:

• In the event a code is not revoked in a timely manner, there is a risk that its continued use would deprive its new user of a valid country code should it be reallocated. This is highlighted by the case of “CS”, which served Czechoslovakia, and later Serbia and Montenegro.
• Broadly speaking, each country or autonomous territory has a single top-level domain at their disposal. It may be considered inequitable that certain countries have more than one such domain available. This is highlighted by East Timor (TP and TL) and the United Kingdom (GB and UK), although it should be noted that GB is effectively inactive.
• The global policy surrounding the operation of ccTLDs heavily emphasises the role of the local Internet community, local government, and local law. Should a code represent an area that does not align to a present-day country, the matter of which government and law has jurisdiction becomes unclear.

With these issues in mind, we are seeking community input on how IANA should handle top-level domains that are no longer ordinarily assigned codes in the ISO-3166.

Guiding questions:

1. Should IANA adhere to the ISO-3166 standard and remove top-level domains from the DNS root that become transitionally reserved (i.e. retired)?
2. If so, by what process should this be conducted?
3. What implementation timeframes for removal should be specified?
4. If removal is test-based, what specific milestones should signify removal from the root zone?
5. What pre-emptive right, if any, should existing operators have toward a new code that covers an area previously serviced (in whole, or in part) by another code?
6. In the event there is more than one code for a particular country available for its use (e.g. GB and UK), what policy should govern their status?

5 December 2006 (source: www.icann.org)