Nominet ushers in new era for .uk namespace

OXFORD, UK: Nominet, the Internet company best known for running the .uk Internet infrastructure, announced updates on a range of new initiatives and projects designed to help the company evolve the .uk namespace and improve standards in the face of a rapidly changing internet landscape, as first outlined in June 2013. These are:

1. The introduction of second level domain names in the .uk namespace - for the first time, shorter, simpler ‘example.uk' domain names will be available alongside ‘example.co.uk', ‘example.org.uk' and so on.

2. The development of initiatives that will enhance the security of the UK namespace, and contribute to the security of the web as a whole.

3. A revised draft of the Registrar Agreement, which rewards those meeting highest standards of service, is now published and open for comment.

4. A proposed Data Quality policy - the company's first - has been published and is open for comment.

Nominet CEO, Lesley Cowley, comments: "In an industry that is seeing an unprecedented level of change with the upcoming introduction of over a thousand new top level domains, we're hard at work to ensure innovation in .uk keeps UK web users and businesses ahead of the curve. At the same time, we're holding ourselves to a higher standard - expanding the choices available to our customers, upping the bar for security, data quality and the way we engage with our registrars to ensure everyone registering, managing or visiting a website with a domain ending in .uk can be proud to be part of a strong, trusted community."

Second level domains

The UK's favourite Internet namespace is expanding, with Nominet approving plans to offer registrations directly before the ‘dot' in .uk. From summer 2014, shorter, simpler ‘example.uk' domain names will be available, representing the biggest modification of the .uk namespace since it began.

Any unique ‘example.uk' domain name (e.g. one that does not have an equivalent name already registered as a .co.uk or a .org.uk) will be available on a first-come, first served basis from launch.

Over 10 million existing .uk customers will be offered the shorter equivalent of their current address, with five years to decide whether they want to use it in addition to, or instead of the domain they already have.

In the small proportion of instances where there could be competition - e.g. where one person holds example.co.uk and another holds example.org.uk - the shorter domain will be offered to the .co.uk registrant.

The wholesale price for the new domains will be £3.50 per year for single year registrations and £2.50 per year for multi-year registrations. This is the same price as a current co.uk domain, ensuring the cost of a domain name will remain a very small proportion (around 1.5% for a small business) of the cost of being online.

All Nominet's existing domains (.co.uk, .org.uk, .net.uk, .me.uk, .plc.uk, .ltd.uk and .sch.uk) will continue to run as normal.

Nominet is planning a major programme of communication and outreach with its customers to ensure people are aware of the changes, and intends to announce a definitive launch date by February 2014.