ZA dotCities domains .joburg, .capetown, and .durban will be available to the general public on a first-come, first served basis from 1 October 2014.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the word from Vika Mpisane, CEO of ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), who was speaking to attendees at a launch event held at their headquarters in Midrand.<\/p>\n
Prior to general availability, the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) will run a pre-registration period for 4 months.<\/p>\n
This includes a \u201csunrise\u201d and \u201clandrush\u201d period, which will run parallel.<\/p>\n
The sunrise period will run for 90 days starting today (Tuesday, 1 July 2014) and allows registered trademark owners to claim a domain for their trademark.<\/p>\n
Mpisane said that these trademarks need to be registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).<\/p>\n
Exceptions are made for local South African trademarks, which owners could register with the ZACR to participate in the sunrise period.<\/p>\n
The landrush period will run for 120 days, parallel to the sunrise phase.<\/p>\n
Landrush applications are not considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Domains applied for during the landrush phase will only be assigned after the period expires.<\/p>\n
If there is more than one applicant for a name, the conflict will be resolved through auction, Mpisane said.<\/p>\n
Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n Addressing the issue of fees, Mpisane said that it was always \u201ctricky\u201d to discuss prices in the Internet service provider (ISP) space.<\/p>\n Though there is a base price, it is ISPs and registrars that will compete on, and eventually determine the prices.<\/p>\n Mpisane predicted that because of the competition the fees will be affordable, and should range from R200 to R300 (per year) \u201cor so\u201d.<\/p>\n dotBloemfontein?<\/strong><\/p>\n Responding to earlier questions of why more cities were not included in the launch, Mpisane said that it comes down to money.<\/p>\n It was previously reported that the ZACR forked out as much as R1.9 million (US$185,000) for each of the three applications to ICANN.<\/p>\n This article first appeared on MyBroadband<\/a><\/p>\nMore on SA domain names<\/h3>\n