Domain Name News

Posted: 09 Apr 2013 06:52 AM PDT

While a large part of the domain industry gathers at the 46th ICANN meeting in Beijing this week, big news are being made in the country of Mali in Africa. As reported by The Guardian, .ML domains will be available for free in July 2013. The registry will be operated by Freedom Registry, the same company that currently operated .TK (ccTLD for Tokelau). .TK currently has over 16 million active domain names according to the registry operator.

Sunrise starts on the 1st of May 2013 and will last for one month until May 31st. Landrush will begin the following day and will end on July 14th 2013. General Availability starts on July 15th at the ICANN meeting in Durban, South Africa. There will be no restrictions to registrations of free domains and anyone can register their own .ML domain. Free .ML domains work exactly like any other extension and can be renewed each registration period at no charge.

Further details on the launch schedule, FAQs and the reseller registration process are available on www.dot.ml.

[via The Guardian, Press Release (PDF)]