Internationalized country code top-level domain
An internationalized country code top-level domain is a
Although the domain class uses the term code, some of these ccTLDs are not codes but full words. For example, السعودية (as-Suʻūdiyya) is not an abbreviation of "Saudi Arabia", but the commonwealth short-form name of the country in
Countries with internationalized ccTLDs also retain their traditional ASCII-based ccTLDs.
As of August 2018 there are 59 approved internationalized country code top-level domains, of them at least 47 used. The most used are
History
The ICANN board approved the establishment of an internationalized top-level domain name working group within the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) in December 2006.[2] They resolved in June 2007 inter alia to proceed and asked the IDNC Working Group to prepare a proposal, which the group delivered in June 2008, "to recommend mechanisms to introduce a limited number of non-contentious IDN ccTLDs, associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes in a short time frame to meet near term demand." The group proposed a methodology using ICANN's Fast Track Process[3] based on the ICANN charter to work with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
- Identify technical basis of the TLD strings and country code specific processes, select IDN ccTLD personnel and authorities, and prepare documentation;
- Perform ICANN due diligence process for technical proposal and publish method;
- Enter delegation process within established IANA procedures.
In October 2009,
On 5 May 2010, the first implementations, all in the
Additional IDN ccTLDs had been implemented by the end of June 2010: one using
.рф
(for Russia), and five using Chinese characters (the first using a non-alphabetical writing system) approved by the ICANN board on 25 June 2010:[10][11]
;.中國 (encoded as ".xn--fiqz9s
"; ".zhongguo
"), delegated to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the registrar for ccTLD.cn
;.香港 (encoded as ".xn--j6w193g
"; ".hongkong
"), delegated to Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation (HKIRC), the registrar for ccTLD.hk
..台湾 (encoded as ".xn--kprw13d
"; ".taiwan
"), delegated to Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), the registrar for ccTLD.tw
The dual domains delegated to each of CNNIC and TWNIC are synonymous, being purely
The new country codes were available for immediate use, although ICANN admit they may not work properly for all users initially..рф
for Russia launched on 13 May. Bulgaria's .бг
was rejected by the ICANN due to its visual similarity with .br
.бг
was eventually approved in 2014.
The Ukrainian string .укр was approved by the ICANN Board on 28 February 2013. The zone was added to the root servers on March 19, 2013.[14] The Bulgarian string
The Pakistan string پاکستان. was approved by the ICANN BOARD on 7 January 2011 to represent Pakistan in Arabic script. On 4 February 2017, IDN ccTLD پاکستان. was delegated to the National Telecommunication Corporation and the zone was added to the root servers on February 15, 2017.
The European Union applied in 2016 for the Cyrillic domain
See also
References
- ^ World report on Internationalised Domain Names 2014 Archived 2014-12-10 at the Wayback Machine page 94
- ^ "Proposed Final Implementation Plan for IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process" (PDF). ICANN. 2009-09-30. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
- ^ "IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process". ICANN.
- ^ "ICANN Bringing the Languages of the World to the Global Internet" (Press release). Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). 30 October 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
- ^ "Internet addresses set for change". BBC News Online. 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
- ^ "First IDN ccTLDs Requests Successfully Pass String Evaluation". ICANN. 2010-01-21.
- ^ a b c d e f "'Historic' day as first non-Latin web addresses go live". BBC News Online. May 6, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
- ^ a b "First IDN ccTLDs now available" (Press release). ICANN. May 5, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- ^ a b c "The internet gets international with the arrival of non-Latin Domain Names". The Independent. Relaxnews. May 7, 2010. Archived from the original on May 10, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
- ^ Peter Sayer (June 25, 2010). "Chinese language top-level domains win ICANN approval". Computerworld. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
- ^ "Adopted Board Resolutions — Brussels – 25 June 2010". ICANN. Retrieved June 26, 2010. (Note: In these minutes, the encodings of the two CNNIC-delegated ccTLDs have inadvertently been swapped.)
- ^ "Implementation Plan of .中国 (xn--fiqs8S) and .中國 (xn--fiqz9S)". CNNIC. June 12, 2010. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
- ^ "TWNIC's Registration Policy and Technical Solution for the .台灣 and .台湾 IDN ccTLDs". TWNIC. Archived from the original on May 25, 2011. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
- ^ ".УКР is going live". Habr. March 21, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2013.