It's an exciting time for the Australian ccTLD, .AU, beginning in March 2022, Australian internet users and businesses alike were able to register domains in the 2nd Level namespace (2ld.au); such as yourbusiness.au. This provides a critical branding opportunity for you and essential for those who already occupy the existing com.au, .net.au, org.au and other AU namespaces.
What's Happening?
On 24 March 2022, auDA, the Registry operator for the Australian ccTLD .AU, began allowing registrations of domains directly under the .AU extension. .AU is now open for 2nd level .AU (2ld.au) registrations.
Previous to March 2022, only 3rd level .AU domains (3ld.au) were allowed for registration (e.g. domain.com.au or domain.net.au), so this is a significant change and a great opportunity for any registrants operating in Australia. Raines Internet Solutions is ready to take priority orders for existing .au domain holders today and new registrants wishing to enter the namespace with a new domain name.
What is the grandfathering process for existing Third-Level .AU Registrants?
All names in .au (e.g. forexample.au) that match an existing name in any of the other namespaces in the registry (e.g. forexample.com.au) by March 24, 2022 00:00 UTC will be placed on hold and only made available for application by Registrants of a corresponding Third-Level .AU domain.
Priority Application period: 180 Calendar days from 24 March 2022
- Existing registrants of a domain name in the .au registry will have 180 days to apply for their matching .au domain names
- According to AuDA's figures, only a small percentage of .au domains will be subject to a contention set between multiple applicants. This will mainly affect domain names based on common dictionary words and English phrases rather than typical company or business names
- Most of the contention arises between com.au and net.au licences and many of these licences are held by the same legal entity.
- 96% of Priority Applicants are expected to be able to register their matching .au domain name as soon as they apply.
Until now, only 3rd level .AU domains (3ld.au) were allowed for registration (e.g. domain.com.au or domain.net.au), so this is a significant change and a great opportunity for any registrants operating in Australia.
Четвер, Березень 24, 2022
