01/10/07

The launch of Asian domain names (.ASIA): registrations possible during the last quarter of 2007

The ICANN, the organisation in charge of managing top-level domain names (TLD), has given its approval for the introduction of the .asia umbrella domain. The organisation appreciated the value of the unified .asia domain for one important reason: it unites 73 countries in 1 single TLD for the whole of Asia.

4 milliard people live in the Asian-Pacific region, which represents 60 % of the world population. The importance of the .asia domain immediately becomes clear if one takes into account that Europe only has 389 million inhabitants! Given the fact that this region has witnessed a 240 % increase of Internet traffic over the past 7 years, .asia could very soon become one of the most important TLDs.

COMBELL prepared an overview of the different stages for this launch.

You will find the different stages of the launch below.

- March 2007 - pre-sunrise: Governments

- September 2007 – Sunrise 1: Governments

- October 2007 – Sunrise 2: Registered brands

- November 2007 – Sunrise 3: Company names

- February 2008 – Landrush

- March 2008 - .Asia goes Live

·         March 2007 - pre-sunrise: Governments

This Sunrise period is reserved for governmental reserved names.

·         September 2007 – Sunrise 1: Governments

During this period, only governments will have the opportunity to register domain names. Sunrise 1 requests will be processed and attributed on a “first-come-first-served” basis.

·         October 2007 – Sunrise 2: Registered brands

During this phase, people and companies with registered brands (name rights, service marks, …) can register their domain names before the public gains access.

Requests that are supported by a proof that the rights are being justly used will be given priority in the frame of the attribution of the domain name.

For instance, you should be able to show a website for which this domain name will be used in order to prevent warehousing.

Domains for which more than 1 valid request is pending will be auctioned.

·         November 2007 – Sunrise 3: Company names

During this phase, organizations and companies that are part of the DotAsia community will be allowed to register their company names.

·         February 2008 – Landrush

The Landrush is open to everybody who fulfils the conditions. All requests received during Sunrise periods 2 & 3 must arrive before the pre-established term of their phase. Domains for which only 1 request has been submitted will be attributed; in case of several requests for the same domain, an auction will be held.

·         March 2008 - .Asia goes Live

Open registrations are expected to take place as from March 2008

Important: for a fast .Asia registration!

Pre-register your .asia domain name through COMBELL as from today. Be quick and register your domain name as from now in the COMBELL .asia database. By submitting a pre-registration, you won’t lose any time and will be able to immediately register your .asia domain name as soon as it is open to the public.

In the event that your domain name cannot be registered during a pre-registration for which you already paid, the entire amount will be refunded without any extra charges.

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