Publishing house HUB Uitgevers has appointed SIDN, the registry for .NL, to provide back-end registry services for the new top-level domain (TLD) .AMSTERDAM.

Amsterdam’s municipal authority asked HUB Uitgevers to operate the Dutch capital’s TLD after careful market research. The expectation is that the new TLD will come on line in 2013. Pre-registration is possible at puntamsterdam.nl and dotamsterdam.nl from 7 May.

“Naturally we are very pleased that Amsterdam and HUB have chosen SIDN to handle the technical realisation of .AMSTERDAM,” said Roelof Meijer, SIDN’s CEO. “With nearly five million registered .NL domain names, we have vast experience with all aspects of domain name registration. We expect new TLDs such as .AMSTERDAM to change the internet landscape. Clearly, therefore, we want to be involved in this development.”