The South African dotCity domain registrations are now open to all, the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has announced.<\/p>\n
From today, (4 November 2014) any individual or organisation may register a .joburg (dotJoburg), .capetown (dotCapeTown) or .durban (dotDurban) city Top-Level Domain (cTLD) on a first-come, first served basis.<\/p>\n
Domains.co.za is offering these cTLDs for R275 per domain, though the group notes that this price excludes premium domain names which are subject to premium pricing from ZACR.<\/p>\n
According to the ZACR, intellectual property owners and others had by Monday evening already applied to register well over 1,100 ZAdotCity domain names during the 120-day Sunrise and Landrush periods.<\/p>\n
Notably, the 623 applications for .capetown cTLDs received to date far outstrip the predicted favourite .joburg which has seen 297 cTLD applications.<\/p>\n
The ZACR has received 250 .durban cTLD applications.<\/p>\n
What is noteworthy is that 237 dotCapeTown domain name applications have been submitted by just one person, skewing the cTLD stakes.<\/p>\n
Three of South Africa\u2019s four major banks have applied for a ZAdotCity domain name. There are 32 auctions pending for domain names that have more than one applicant.<\/p>\n
Most of South Africa\u2019s favourite technology brands have applied for all three ZAdotCity domain names.<\/p>\n
The 1,170 applications for ZAdotCity domain names were received during the parallel Sunrise and Landrush periods managed by the ZACR.<\/p>\n
These time periods were designed to protect the rights of trademark holders prior to ZAdotCities domain names becoming available on a first-come, first-served basis from November 2014.<\/p>\n
This last application period is known as the General Availability phase, where intellectual property owners will no longer receive priority when it comes to registering domain names within South Africa\u2019s three new cTLDs.<\/p>\n
Registration of names from 4 November will follow the usual process where applicants register names through their chosen accredited registrars or resellers.<\/p>\n
As is normal practice, different registrars will charge different prices due to bundled services they provide in addition to the basic domain name registration service.<\/p>\n