Businesses personnel and also the general public will have an opportunity to own top level domain thanks to the delegation underway designed to enter into the internet’s Root Zone which will provide support needed to run a TLD.
The delegations to be facilitated by ZA Central Registry in support of the ZA domain Name Authority, the SA Department of Communications and the cities of Capetown, Durban and Joburg will see into the mid 2014 launch of SA’s newest cities top level domains ZA dot Cities which include; .Joburg, .Capetown, .Durban which will have trademark owners who wish to partake their naming rights online top priority being given to trademark rights registered in South Africa as well as world known trademarks.
These delegations signal the beginning of the largest-ever expansion of the Domain Name System (DNS); a change that promises to promote global innovation, competition and consumer choice. It means you will soon see the Internet grow from the 22 TLDs (like .COM, .BIZ and .ORG) that we have always had to more than 1400 new possibilities. To date, there have been 302 new delegations since October 2013.
We anticipate launching our new city TLDs as soon as possible after delegation has taken place. The launch will be subject to a limited rights registration period, which will include a parallel Sunrise and Landrush application period. Speak to your ISP, Host or Domain Registrar to enquire about securing your city domain names.
The Sunrise application, is a domain name application based on a validated priority right such as a trade mark, business or company name. At the conclusion of the launch phase, the applications will be allocated before Landrush applications.
The delegation of the three South African city TLDs is progressing well and we are hopeful that this process will be finalised before the end of the ICANN London meeting (22-26 June 2014). A status report on the current delegation process is available at registry.net.za/launch
However, the countdown to delegation and launch for DOTAFRICA (.AFRICA) has temporarily been suspended by ICANN due an ongoing independent Review Process (IRP) initiated by DCA Trust (another applicant for the .Africa TLD whose application was denied by ICANN in 2013). Further details on this process, including a status report on the current delegation process is available at africainonespace.org/irp