As of 1 September, .FI domain names (the country code for Finland) are able to be registered for periods of up to five years following changes to the Finnish Domain Name Act. The change means .FI domain names can be registered for periods of one, three or five years. The change also applies to renewals.
Another change sees the waiting period for domain names will be shortened from three months to one month. During the waiting period, domain names cannot be registered to a new holder, but after the end of the waiting period, they are available for all. A waiting period will follow the termination, revocation or expiration of a domain name.
Another .FI happening is there will be approximately 52,000 .FI domain names expiring on 31 August and 1 September 2009. The domain names about to expire now have been initially applied for on 1 September 2003 or earlier.
So far, 62 per cent of the .FI domain names about to expire now have been renewed, which means that it is possible that nearly 20,000 domain names will expire at the end of this month and beginning of next.
For more information on the above announcements, see the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) website at ficora.fi/en/index/viestintavirasto.html.
To register your .FI domain name, check out Europe Registry here.