Your own domain extension

One of the best known domain extensions is the .com. And you probably know the .be and .nl extensions. Have you always dreamed of having your own domain extension, like e.g. .yourcompany or .yourname? Perhaps this dream is about to come true. ICANN, the institution that manages domain names worldwide, has modified its rules. Owing to this modification, it will soon be possible to buy your own domain extension and even sell domain names with your extension.

Imagine for instance that the city of Ghent would buy the extension .ghent. The city would then be able to sell domain names, like e.g. www.shoestores.ghent, www.shopping.ghent, www.jones.ghent, www.jobs.ghent, www.tourism.ghent, etc., to all inhabitants of Ghent and to companies located in Ghent.

COMBELL offers you the opportunity to preregister your own domain extension without further obligation. For the time being, we are still awaiting further specifications from ICANN. What is certain, however, is that requesting a personalized domain extension will cost about 100,000 euros and that you will have to provide solid guarantees that you are able to support the extension on a technical level. COMBELL will take care of these technical aspects for you. Because of our year-long experience with domain names and Internet, you can rest assured to have found a reliable partner in us.
Registrations will probably take place in 2 separate stages. First, brand holders, municipalities, provinces and countries will have the opportunity to claim their own domain extension. Subsequently, the landrush will set in and anyone will be able to submit their request.

COMBELL’s collaborators follow all the developments closely. If you submit a preregistration request without further obligation, you will receive an e-mail every time that we get hold of further information.

• The city of The Hague wants to reserve the extension .denhaag or .thehague as soon as possible. "The municipal College also thinks that it is a good idea to make the domain name extensions available to institutions and organisations from The Hague. We are now determining what the conditions, procedures and costs would amount to. This is a unique opportunity to enhance the digital identity of citizens, companies and visitors of The Hague".
• Banks have been striving to get their own extension (.bank) for a while. This extension would only be attributed to banks. The banks are hoping that such a personalized extension would help prevent phishing attempts. Phishing techniques are used by ill-intentioned organisations that pose as a certain bank in order to drain bank accounts.
• International signs will also be allowed, like e.g. Arabic, Cyrillic, Mandarin (Chinese) or Russian signs.
• You can attribute its own domain name to every local branch office of your company, like e.g. www.berlin.bmw, www.brussels.kbc and www.new-york.dior.
• You can attribute a personalized domain name and its corresponding e-mail address to each inhabitant of your municipality or city, like e.g. jack@smith.antwerp or gerald@browning.amsterdam.
• Every department within your company can have its own domain name and corresponding e-mail addresses, like e.g. www.support.combell, www.sales.combell or www.webmail.combell.