Issue 167 - 15th October 2004

.eu update

EURid, the non-profit organisation concerned with overseeing the implementation of the forthcoming .eu generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), signed the Service Concession contract with the European Commission's Information Society on Tuesday 12 October. With this contract signed, the Commission can now officially notify the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) of the chosen registry operator.

EURid claim that it will still take 6-9 months from now for the registration process to commence, the first stage being a 'sunrise' period for trademark holders.

Note: Although some organisations are claiming to offer pre-registration of .eu, this is not possible as at present there is no officially sanctioned pre-registration process and we would advise our customers to avoid offers to pre-register .eu domains.

N3 lite will keep you up to date as more information is made available and provide ample notice of any impending deadlines. Further updates will also be posted at www.gtld.com.

Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) news

.biz

NeuLevel, the registry operator for .biz, launched .biz IDNs yesterday. For the time being, only German script .biz IDNs will be available.

To register, go to www.netnames.com. They are priced the same as standard gTLDs

.tm

The registry operator for .tm, the Turkmenistan country-code TLD, have released .tm IDNs, supporting all languages. Registrations are on a first-come, first-served basis.

To register .tm IDNs, go to www.netnames.com.

ICANN news

On Monday 11 October the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced its final selections of nominees for four of its leadership bodies. The nominees for the Board of Directors were as follows:

Vinton G. Cerf (U.S.A. - North America) 
Joichi Ito (Japan - Asia/Australia/Pacific) 
Vanda Scartezini (Brazil - Latin America/Caribbean Islands)

On Tuesday 12 October ICANN announced that its $15.8 million budget for 2004-05 (approximately twice the previous budget) had finally been approved by the registrars, after some lengthy debate. The fee structure will become effective 1 November 2004.

And it was reported in yesterday's online press that ICANN plans to open seven offices outside the US over the next two years, and hopes to have four of them operational before the end of June 2005. Its existing offices are in Los Angeles and Brussels.