I have heard about pre-registrations for .name domains. Now I heard that pre-registrations will be over by May, and after that I can register .name domains normally (without pre-registration). Is this true ? Shall I wait till May so that I can avoid the pre-registration cost ? And, can anyone suggest me a cheap .name registrar ?

There should not be any charge for pre-reg, aside from the registration cost itself. If a registrar is charging extra, you probably don't want to get your domains from them, because that's pretty shady. During the .name pre-reg, domains get registered in about 1-2 weeks. The only difference after pre-reg, is that registrations will be in real-time.

-Dan

Thanks for the reply... any idea when the real time registration will start ? And whats the normal price for .name registration now ?

.name domain pre-registration is really only early registration. There are no additional requirements, and there are no additional fees from most domain sellers. The registry is simply not real-time yet, so they are going in every week in batch mode rather than in real-time.

The real-time registration is coming in May if the Registry stays on schedule.

There is a full schedule of activities you can view here:

http://www.opensrs.org/dotname_info.shtml

I can't quote you prices as that would be advertising services, but it's fair to say that you'll find .name domains from $10-$40 a year without registry email forwarding, and $20-$80 a year with email forwarding.

-t