The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) launched a call Tuesday for applications for projects to improve internet access in Canada. Over C$1 million in grants will be awarded to community groups and researchers working on infrastructure, cybersecurity, digital literacy and community leadership projects – with preference given to those that benefit students, as well as northern, rural, and Indigenous communities.
On 1 January 2021 over 81,000 British-based .eu registrants found their domain names had become “suspended”, meaning their domain names would not resolve to websites and emails would not transmit. The reason was that at the end of the Brexit “transition period” on 31 December, they were ineligible to hold or register .eu domains. To comply, individuals had to prove they were a citizen of the European Union or the larger European Economic Area, an EU citizen no matter where they lived in the world or for businesses, be a legally established entity in the EU or EEA.
The .cloud new gTLD commemorates its fifth birthday this week with its first ever Premium Domain Sales Report that notes there were $320,136 in total premium revenue in 2020, $203,884 through their premium registrars who sold 155 premium domains with an average price of $1,315 per domain sold.
Verisign reported its fourth quarter and 2020 financial results Thursday and the highlight that will get most attention is the increase in the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .com domain name, which will increase by 7%, from $7.85 to $8.39, effective 1 September, 2021.
ShortDot is launching the Sunrise period for its fourth new gTLD on 10 March, the recently acquired .cfd, which they are promoting as being for #ClothingFashionDesign.
EURid has joined forces with the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), signing a partnership agreement to contribute to a safer and more trustworthy internet.
Not many top-level domain registries publish surveys on how their domain names are being used, but EURid this week did with some interesting findings, like just over half (51.84%) of the 150,000 .eu domain names survey have websites with rich content, 81% of domains with MX records are active and 82.5% are connected to a web server.
The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020, but the 11 month transition period meant the UK was still bound by the EU’s rules. At the end of the transition period it was known businesses and citizens of the UK would lose the right to register .EU domain names. What very few realised was that due to the terms and conditions for .fr, they would lose the right to register and hold .fr domain names as well.
London’s Sunday Telegraph reported of an insurrection brewing at Nominet, the .uk registry, with a former chair of the BBC “backing a bid to oust nearly half of the board of Nominet … amid anger over rising pay and falling contributions to good causes.”
Uni Naming and Registry (or Uniregistry or UNR) is to offload its 23 new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs) in a one-day auction event on 28 April. The event will consist of separate no-reserve auctions for each of the 23 new gTLDs, giving bidders the flexibility to only acquire the Top Level Domains that fit their strategies or budgets.