ICANN considers proposed new sTLDs

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is considering several applications for new sponsored top-level domains (sTLDs). ICANN invited the applications earlier this year as part of its broad strategic initiative to enable the creation of new TLDs.

The applications were made by various different organizations interested in sponsoring and running new TLDs. It is hoped that the sTLDs will give internet users access to information on specific areas and topics.

The proposed new sTLDs include:

• '.asia', proposed by DotAsia Organization Limited in Hong Kong;
  
  
• '.cat', proposed by the Catalan linguistic and cultural community;
  
  
• '.jobs', proposed by the Society for Human Resource Management and Employ Media LLC in the United States, would grant registrations only to qualified applicants;
  
  
• '.mail', proposed by the UK Anti-Spam Community Registry (which represents individuals and companies that wish to receive and send spam-free email without being blocked, filtered or inconvenienced when doing so), would be available to registrants only during the email-sending process;
  
  
• '.mobi', proposed by Mobi JV (which includes Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Sun Microsystems and Vodafone), would be available for websites designed for mobile phones and internet-ready devices;
  
  
• '.post', proposed by the Swiss-based Universal Postal Union, would provide a trusted, stable, secure, innovative standard identifier for the postal community in cyberspace;
  
  
• '.tel', proposed by US-based NetNumber, would allow telephone numbers to be registered as domain names on the Internet, linking IP-based services with those registered telephone numbers. An application for '.tel' has also been made by Telnic Limited in England;
  
  
• '.travel', proposed by the US Travel Partnership Corporation would be fully open to any bona fide travel trade industry associations, organizations or entities; and
  
  
• '.xxx', proposed by the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, would host online adult content.

All these applications are open to public comment and will be subject to review by an independent panel.

Rubya Ramjahn, Johnson Stokes & Master, Hong Kong