Hi all,

Just saw this and thought it might be of interest..

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3730464.html?tag=rltdnws

I still can't understand a .aero domain????? :confused:

Sorry felix220, but this is really not news. The dateline on this news item is last November... :D

-t

OpenSRS will offer info and biz TLDs to their reseller soon !

Anyone know when the official release date will be for the new TLD's?

vizi,

there is "no" scheduled release date at this moment in time, but i'm sure the word will be leaked out sooner than later.

I hope so anyhow. :)

biz and .info registrations
-----------------
Tucows will be offering our resellers the opportunity to sell the newest
TLDs; .info and .biz. These two new TLDs will be the first available
TLDs of the recently approved seven new TLDs by ICANN (.biz, .info,
pro, .coop, .name, .aero, and .museum).

It is widely expected that .biz and .info will be a large revenue
opportunity for all those involved in the domain registration business.
info is the only unrestricted new gTLD available, and is therefore
expected to be in high demand worldwide. .biz is expected to do
exceptionally well as more than 80% of all domains currently registered
are businesses. In addition, both registries will be investing heavily
in marketing these new TLDs as alternatives to the already crowded
com/net/org namespace.

Tucows will be strongly endorsing and promoting the launch of both new
TLDs and we are confident that these will both provide an excellent
revenue opportunity for you.

We will be providing regular updates on these opportunities.

info registrations
-----------------
Pricing for .info registrations is still being finalized. As soon as
Tucows has details of pricing we will make it available to you. Tucows
expects to provide a competitive wholesale price for .info so that our
resellers can offer competitive retail pricing.

The following are ESTIMATED timelines involved in the launch of .info .
There are many factors which could alter the timelines involved in the
respective launches - including ICANN, the Department of Commerce, etc,
however, based on our information to date, the following timelines are
offered for general planning purposes.

The agreement between Afilias (the official registry) and ICANN was
completed on April 26, 2001. It is estimated to have been signed by
ICANN on May 3 and we estimate that the contract will be approved by the
Department of Commerce on May 10.

Here are the phases associated with the launch of .info:

1. PHASE 1 - SUNRISE PERIOD - Begin June 11 and end July 10 .
Open to trademark and service mark owners only. In order for trademark
and service mark owners to qualify for a registration during the Sunrise
Period (a "Sunrise Registration"), the following information must be
provided to Tucows to send to the registry: (i) the ASCII characters
name of the trademark or service mark; (ii) the date the registration
issued; (iii) the country of registration; and (iv) the registration
number. This information will be required in addition to the standard
information that Registry Operator will require all potential
registrants to submit in order to register a domain name.

In the event that separate applicants file for the same domain name
registration or submit registration requests for identical trademarks,
the first request to be processed by the Registry that meets the
criteria for a Sunrise Registration will be awarded the domain name
registration.

2. COOLING OFF PERIOD - Begin July 11 and end July 25.
No activities are planned for this period.

3. PHASE 2 - LANDRUSH PERIOD - Begin July 26 and end August 16.
Registry Operator will not impose any restrictions on who may register a
domain name during the Land Rush Period, other than those restrictions
that apply during the normal operation of the Registry. The same fields
are required as for current com/net/org registrations.

4. PHASE 3 - NORMALIZED VOLUME PERIOD - Begin August 17.
This period is a synchronous registration period - all registrations are
performed in real-time on a first come, first served basis. The same
fields are required as for current com/net/org registrations.

Both the sunrise and landrush periods are based on asynchronous,
randomized queue models. This means that registrars will submit domains
via batch transfer (details still to be provided by registry) and they
will be randomly chosen from the queue. There will be five round-robin
queues. It is NOT encouraged that registrants submit multiple entries
for a .info domain in either the sunrise or landrush periods.

Tucows will be offering/building a 'pre-registration' mechanism for you
to take pre-registrations from your registrants. Money will be placed on
hold for pre-registrations, however there are no planned charges for
orders that fail, so money will be returned for these orders. It is
ESTIMATED that Tucows will have the mechanisms ready for resellers as
follows:

for SUNRISE PERIOD - Ready for June 1
for LANDRUSH PERIOD - Ready for June 26

All necessary product specs will be provided to you as soon as they are
available. The proposed tools will allow you to aggregate orders for
info domains so that when the registry opens up, Tucows will
immediately transfer the blocks of registrations to ensure that you have
the best chance of registering .info domains.

Please note that Afilias has reserved the right to extend the SUNRISE
and LANDRUSH periods if demand is higher than anticipated.

It is strongly advised that you communicate to your registrants that the
acceptance of registrations for the queuing model WILL NOT guarantee the
registrant the .info domain name they have applied for.

We will post further information as it becomes available.

biz registrations
-----------------
Pricing for .biz registrations is still being finalized. As soon as
Tucows has details of pricing we will make it available to you. Tucows
expects to provide a competitive wholesale price for .biz so that our
resellers can offer competitive retail pricing.

The following are ESTIMATED timelines involved in the launch of .BIZ.
There are many factors which could alter the timelines involved in the
respective launches - including ICANN, the Department of Commerce, etc,
however, based on the info we have been provided to date, these our are
best rough estimates that should only be used for general planning
purposes.

The agreement between Neulevel (the registry operator) and ICANN was
completed on April 27, 2001. It is estimated to have been signed by
ICANN on May 4 and should be approved by the Department of Commerce on
May 11.

continue....


Here are the phases associated with the launch of .info:

1. PHASE 1 - IP CLAIM SERVICE - Begin May 14 and end July 9.
The IP Claim Service is designed to help businesses and individuals
protect their trademarks -- registered and common law -- during the
launch of the new .biz top-level domain. Through the IP Claim Service a
trademark or service mark holder, or a company that believes they have a
legitimate IP claim, can file their claim with the .biz registry. The
claim filing will not guarantee the Claimant their domain name, but it
does help warn off so-called cybersquatters and others who might
unknowingly infringe on another business intellectual property.

Filing an IP claim:

- notifies prospective .biz registrants of potential infringement to
your IP rights
- warns off cybersquatters and others unaware of claims against a name
BEFORE they complete the Domain Name Application.
- forces the prospective registrant to acknowledge the claim before
going ahead with registration
- sends the claimant contact information about the successful Registrant
- puts an Automatic 30-day hold put on registrations with a claim
against them
- gives the claimant valuable time to act BEFORE the address goes live
- provides the claimant an entry into the .biz start-up dispute
resolution program should any domain name disputes arise during the
launch

IP Claimants are essentially first in line for resolving conflicts
using Start-up Trademark Opposition Policy (STOP) that saves them
valuable time and money in solving domain name disputes. ONLY IP
Claimants (those filing claims during the IP Claim Service phase) may
use this process, which is specially designed for .biz launch . STOP
carries a lower burden of proof than the standard Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy which will be used after .biz launch

Contrary to what has been previously announced, Tucows resellers can
collect all the necessary data on their own site, submit this
information to Tucows , and we will then send it to Neulevel. You will
bill the customer and Neulevel will bill Tucows, thus the "reseller to
end user" relationship is preserved.

You might have heard conflicting information on submitting and billing
for this service, however, this is the most recent submission method
proposed by NeuLevel - it was changed as a result of feedback provided
by many registrars and resellers to NeuLevel.

Functional specifications for this phase WILL NOT be provided to Tucows
until the week of May 7th, as a result, as soon as we have the
requirements, we will immediately forward them to you.

2. PHASE 2 - LANDRUSH PERIOD - Begin June 25 and end September 25.
The Domain Name Application Phase of the launch of the .biz registry
provides companies with the opportunity to submit domain name requests
prior to the actual launch of the Registry and after NeuLevel is
accredited by ICANN.

During the Domain Name Application Phase, companies seeking to register
a .biz domain name have the opportunity to submit a domain name
application through you, and you in turn will then submit to Tucows.
Tucows will then submit these applications to the registry.

Registrants can submit pre-registrations as many times as they want -
however, they are required to pay a non-refundable pre-registration fee
(price to be determined).

Name selection will not begin until after September 25th.

All names (from all registrars) will be combined and a 'lottery' system
will be used to select winners of the domains.

If there are no multiple registrations - the registrant will be awarded
the domain.
It is extremely important that you communicate to your registrants that
they are NOT guaranteed the .biz name they pre-registered for - it is a
lottery selection.

Name selection will be completed by October 1.

3. PHASE 3 - REGISTRY LIVE PERIOD - Begin October 1.
This is a synchronous registration period - all registrations are
performed in real-time on a first come, first served basis. The same
fields are required as for current com/net/org registrations.

Tucows will be offering/building a 'queuing' mechanism for you to take
orders from your registrants for pre-registrations. It is ESTIMATED that
Tucows will have the mechanisms ready for resellers as follows:

for IP CLAIM SERVICE - TBD
for LANDRUSH PERIOD - Ready for May 25

All necessary product specs will be provided to you as soon as they are
available. The proposed tools will allow you to collect orders for .biz
domains so that when the registry opens up, Tucows will immediately
transfer the blocks of registrations to ensure that you have an equal
chance of submitting domains for the LANDRUSH PERIOD.



quoted from OpenSRS reseller's update e-mail.

:)

Originally posted by felix220
I still can't understand a .aero domain????? :confused:

chocolate.aero
mint.aero
orange.aero

Make Sense now??? ;)