The process of awarding the registry contract started in 2016 when the Vanuatu government passed legislation relating to .vu that would lead to deregulation as well as an upgraded IANA process for redelegation that previously took many years to complete. There had also been deregulation of Vanuatu’s telecommunications space which had seen costs go down by around 80%, so the government was keenly away deregulation could bring benefits. Vanuatu has a population of around 276,000 for the Pacific island east of the northern part of Australia.

“In seeking a new Registry Operator for the .vu namespace, we sought an organisation that would act as a true partner to TRBR in managing and administering .vu in the interests of the Vanuatu Internet Community, as well as the Internet-using community globally,” said TRBR Regulator, Mr Brian Winji.

“Neustar’s credentials in TLD operations and marketing, DNS security and performance, policy development and more, uniquely position it to support TRBR in increasing .vu domain name registrations through enhanced promotions, technical innovation and security.”

“We look forward to working with Neustar in this next stage of .vu’s evolution, and benefiting from Neustar’s demonstrated experience in ccTLD management and strong reputation in the industry as an organisation of integrity and professionalism.”

Vanuatu’s ccTLD, with around 1,500 to 2,000 registrations, nobody seems to know for sure, has been notable in recent years for a less than stellar service for registrants and it was something the government was keen to improve. The less than stellar service meant the registry wasn’t reliable saw local businesses and others look abroad when registering their domain names. So a consultation process began with various internet groups who were supportive of change and to allow Vanuatu companies and organisations to sell domain names.

Now, with Neustar Vanuatu Limited, a subsidiary of Neustar, Inc, as a reliable registry operator .vu is looking to expand and will continue to be available to registrants around the world. But now it will be able to add security and stability to having a visually appealing top-level domain to appeal to registrants.

While the addition of .vu will add little to domains under management, it is undoubtedly of strategic value and will demonstrate that despite their size, Neustar is capable and willing to operate TLDs of any size. Today Neustar operates the back-end technology and marketing for several ccTLDs around the world, including .co (Colombia), .us (United States) and .in (India). In addition, they operate and support a large portfolio of generic TLDs, including the fastest-growing city TLD .nyc, and other high-profile domains like .biz. In total, they support almost 240 TLDs and 15 million domain names around the world.