Internet governing body Icann has given a new European extension the go-ahead. Dot EU is now expected to launch before the end of 2005 with a four-month sunrise period for advance registrations by prior rights holders.
Icann's board approved Dot EU on March 21st by asking Icann CEO Paul Twomey to enter into an agreement with Eurid, the non-profit organisation selected in 2003 by the European Commission to run Dot EU.
The European extension is now set to go from theory to fact as Icann takes the necessary steps to have Dot EU go live on the Internet by including it in the web's root servers. Eurid expects this to take about ten days.
"Having Dot EU in the root sets the green light for the launch of Dot EU," said Eurid General Manager Marc Van Wesemael. "Over the next few months we will be working very hard on the final preparations with the aim of launching the Dot EU sunrise period later this year."
Open for businesses before the end of 2005
Although Dot EU is not expected to fully open before early 2006, the sunrise period is a crucial step for many would-be applicants. It is designed to give trademark holders, public bodies and a host of other prior rights holders priority access to Dot EU registrations.
The two-phase Dot EU sunrise period will last for four months and Icann's green light means Eurid is now confident it can start the Dot EU sunrise by the last quarter of 2005. Eurid will publish full details of the sunrise and the complete Dot EU registration policies over the coming months.
Eurid will also start building a complete network of official Dot EU resellers, called registrars. Dot EU domain names will only be available through Eurid-accredited registrars and Eurid expects to release an initial list of these companies in May.
Around one million Dot EU registrations are expected in the first year of this new Internet domain.
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