

Hello.

There is a lot of discussion of and a real possibility that there will
be additional top level domains and additional registries in the near
future, the plans for how to do this in a resonable way are moving
forward.

The specific process for establishing new registries and allocating to
them new top level domains must deal with a number of difficult
issues.  The key goal is to promote competition among multiple
registries in a manageable environment.

A process for introducing new registries and new top-level domains is
is begining (based on a plan proposed by the IANA and available from
the IETF Internet Drafts repositories as draft-postel-iana-itld-admin-02.txt).

Sorry to say things haven't moved as fast as anticipated.  Getting the
committee set up has taken longer planned.  The committe has been
formed.  Along the way the plan has been expanded to incorporate the
participation and experience of some important international
organizationsp.

The procedure will be to get an application form from the special
committee on new registries (now called the IAHC) as soon as they
finalize the procedures (check their web page at http://www.iahc.org/).

Requests sent to the IANA for a new top level domain will be filed with
the many other requests.  There is some considerable possibility that
this particular request will not be granted (in simple words -- don't
plan on it).  It is not at all clear what status these requests will
be given by the new special committee (the IAHC).

See the IANA web page at http://www.iana.org/iana/ and click on
"Announcements".  The latest developments and announcements regarding
the new registries and top level domains will be posted here.

The current advice is to be preapared to apply to be a new registry
and iTLD service when the IAHC announces the rules and application
procedure.

IANA
