[mulligan]

Taken from DNF

Contract signed for .asia domain

The Internet's key oversight agency said Thursday it has signed a contract to create Internet addresses ending in ".asia" as a way to unify businesses and other users in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the ".asia" domain in October and signed the agreement Wednesday with DotAsia Organization Ltd., an organization made up of groups that run domain names for China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries.

ICANN is holding is regular meeting in Brazil this week.

When it is formally added to the Internet's Domain Name System, ".asia" would bring to 266 the number of Internet suffixes and would supplement domains for individual countries, such as ".cn" for China and ".jp" for Japan. ICANN earlier approved ".eu" for the European Union.

DotAsia plans to explore permitting domain names in Asian scripts under ".asia." ICANN also has been exploring allowing suffixes in other scripts, too, though that will take time and is independent of the efforts of ".asia" organizers.

Registrations for names using the Latin alphabet is expected to open in six to nine months. Prices will vary, and trademark holders will get the first picks.

Demand for the new names has generally been low, compared with old-timers like ".com," but many foreign businesses consider ".com" primarily a U.S. domain, and latecomers to the Internet have found the best names already taken. DotAsia has said it plans to restrict registrations to those in the region, which includes Australia.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D8LSDTPO0.htm