Icann okays 3 new suffixes, but stalls action on ‘.pro’

Montevideo: The organisation that oversees Internet addresses cleared the way Monday for domain names ending in “.museum,” “.coop,” and “.aero” but postponed action on “.pro.”

Contracts for “.biz,” “.info,” and “.name” were approved earlier by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the non-profit organisation selected by the US government to handle address policies.

As Icann concluded four days of quarterly meetings here, the board authorised its staff to finalise contracts to run suffixes for museums, business cooperatives and the aviation industry.

But with “.pro,” the suffix for professionals, Icann officials said a final agreement was delayed by disagreements between companies in the joint venture that plans to run “.pro.”

Icann’s general counsel, Mr Louis Touton, would not give details, other than to say the dispute has been resolved. On its Web site (www.icann.org), Icann said the proposed “.pro” operator wanted to reduce its level of financial commitments.

The Icann board set a mid-November deadline for staff to complete an agreement with RegistryPro Ltd. Board approval could come then. The delay likely means “.pro” names won’t be usable until next year. The “.pro” suffix was one of seven approved by Icann last year as the first major addressing expansion since the 1980s. At the time, Icann had hoped the names would become operational by mid-2001. The first of the new names, “.info,” will be activated Sept. 19, followed by “.biz” on Oct. 1 and “.name” on Dec. 13.

Meanwhile, the board ordered a freeze until March on registering the names of countries under “.info.” Icann’s Government Advisory Committee complained that many country names had been claimed during an early-registration period by people unaffiliated with those countries’ governments. Some of those countries’ governments are not proficient enough to run the sites, so the board will consider reserving them. The board also approved an agreement with an organisation in Australia to run its country suffix, “.au.” It is the first of 244 country codes to have a formal agreement with Icann.

Managers of several country codes have questioned the authority of California-based Icann. For the most part, they refused to pay bills Icann sent last year to finance its operating budget. The suffixes are being run on an ad-hoc basis as Icann continues negotiations.

Icann also formed a committee to examine non-English domain names.Currently, the Internet’s domain name system recognizes only English — specifically, 26 letters, 10 numerals and a hyphen.

-- AP