The next phase will be the approvals from IANA, Department of Commerce of the United States and ICANN. Once granted, the Universidat de los Andes will transfer all the operations of this domain to .CO Internet S.A.S. However, this joint venture has to implement the new policies and adjust them to best practices known.

This .co is linked all over the world with the words company, corporation and commerce so that it can become the new online presence-branding tool for businesses, entrepreneurs or developers of every kind. Pre-registration for .co domain is already open, however, the launching schedule will consist of three stages:

1. The Global Sunrise – April 26, 2010: this is for trademark holders with equivalent domain names registered before July 30, 2008.
2. The Landrush – June 21 until July 13, 2010: this stage will be open for everybody interested in registering domain names of high commercial importance.
3. The General Availability – July 20, 2010: .co domain names will become available for anyone in the world.

Due to some limitations imposed by governing policies, there will be only 10 .co Accredited Registrars during first year of operation: Dotster, MelbourneIT, My.com.co, eNom, Register.com, 1&2, GoDaddy, InternetX, Tucows and Network Solutions. However, any other ICANN and non-ICANN registrars may join as resellers.

Prices for this domain will be decided by each of the 10 registrars, though they are supposed to be higher than other domain names due to the linking to business development opportunity. One of the 10 registrars already offers pre-registration, with prices from $299/year for Global Sunrise and Landrush stages to $29,99/year for General Availability stage.

12 March is be the date on which .xxx domain names plan exclusively for adult websites will be reviewed by Icann. First launched in 2001, this scheme was approved four years later, in 2005 and reconsidered in 2007 due to massive protests started by conservative groups from the US.

In recent times, a mediation board of retired judges at ICDR (International Centre for Dispute Resolution) decreed that this plan must be reconsidered. They considered that Icann’s rejection was “not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy”. Therefore, on 12 March, in Nairobi, Kenya, Icann could decide whether the plan to create a place only for pornography should be approved or rejected again. If they will grant this,.xxx domain names will hit the market by the end of 2010.

Even though this meeting could mean a new era for Internet pornography, an Icann spokesperson said this pronouncement will not be taken without seeking advice with other members of Icann and the Internet community.

This plan, if applied, is to base on a voluntary scheme, so that adult websites will not be forced to use only .xxx domain names but they will also be allowed to be placed on other domains like .com.

.xxx domain names resurrection news comes attached with the auction of probably the most valuable Internet domain name, sex.com, which is planned to be sold in New York on 18 March. Starting price is $1 million.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s president said if the proposed changes are approved, by middle of 2010, we could start expecting to see domain name not based on Latin characters on the Internet. Application for the new non-Latin domain names is expected to start coming thick and fast once the proposal is approved at this weeks ICANN meeting. This proposal should have be put in place long before now when you consider the fact that more than half of the world estimated 1.6 Billion Internet users use non Latin based character.

Many other countries has been concerned but the links between the USA governement and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Some demand the USA government made off ICANN during the Bush administration cause alarm in many countries and also ruffled feathers at ICANN who then threatens to relocated to Switzerland.