DNS Belgium : How is a new extension created ?

DNS Belgium, the company behind .BE extension , tried to explain how are the new three Internet extensions (.vlaanderen, .brussels and .gent ) created.

You can read the article after the jump :

“The arrival of .vlaanderen, .brussels and .gent gives our country 3 new Internet extensions. So why aren’t there more of these new extensions featuring the names of other cities, provinces and parts of the country, for example? And how exactly is an Internet extension created?

Creating a new extension is a complicated process on an international scale. First and foremost, there is a major difference between country extensions (ccTLDs), such as .be, .nl, etc. and generic extensions (gTLDs), such as .com, .net and .info. The country extensions were allocated over time to the various countries where the Internet was beginning to grow.

gTLDs (or ‘generic top level domains’ in full) are not necessarily linked to geographic areas. In principle, the possibilities are endless, but because establishing new gTLDs is a complex business, ICANN has opted to group these applications into set programmes. To understand the process, we have to go back in time.

The early days and expansion

ICANN was created in 1998 as an international organisation tasked to guarantee a stable, globally united Internet and also to allocate (new) extensions. ICANN decides when new extensions can be added and acts as the arbitrator in the process of allocation. A number of gTLDs, including .com and .net, already existed when the organisation was first set up. In 2000 and 2004, a limited number of new gTLDs came under the supervision of ICANN, such as .biz, .info and .jobs.

In 2011, ICANN gave the green light for the launch of a new gTLD programme, which was to be the biggest ever. Why ICANN did so you can read here. 1,930 applications for new extensions were received during the application period. In principle, anyone could apply for a new extension. Bit it’s not as simple as that.

There are a great many conditions that you have to meet when you apply. To manage an extension, you need to be able to act as a ‘registry’. This is an organisation that has the required technical, financial and operational expertise to ensure that domain names carrying this extension can also effectively be ‘found’ in the Internet. The requirements imposed by ICANN on registries are pretty strict and are checked thoroughly before an application can be approved. The evaluation procedure also costs $185,000, which as a registry you can earn back by opening up the new extension for paying registrations.

When an organisation itself does not have the necessary knowledge to act as a registry, it can call on an existing registry to manage the new extension. When the Brussels and Flemish governments decided to launch .brussels and .vlaanderen respectively, they did not have the technical or operational expertise to handle the management of the new extensions. So they screened potential candidate registries and in both cases their choice fell on DNS Belgium to manage the extensions.

What does the future of the gTLDs look like? When will there be other new extensions?

At the present time, the current gTLD programme is still underway. The period for new applications closed some time ago.

Those extensions that were approved in the last round are now in their various launch phases. Some of them are already fully launched and open to the general public. For others, such as .brussels and .vlaanderen, phases are still in progress where various different parties (companies, government departments, private individuals, etc.) are being given priority to apply for a domain name. For a summary of the launch phases for .vlaanderen and .brussels, take a look at our timeline.

Once ICANN has fully completed this gTLD programme, these new extensions will be given the time to grow and the Internet landscape will be fundamentally changed. No doubt, another new gTLD programme will be launched at a later stage. When it is, you will read all about it here, of course!”

Check out EuroDNS here to register your .Vlaanderen , .Brussels and .Gent domain names.