The 11 January launch of the second phase of registration of .swiss internet addresses extends the range of possible domain names and potential candidates. It also opens up the possibility for umbrella organisations or sector representatives to submit a dossier in order to obtain a generic address, such as hotel.swiss or watch.swiss, which will then be put at the disposal of the sector as a whole. The first phase has already enabled some 7000 .swiss internet addresses to be assigned.
Press Release
Biel/Bienne, 19.11.2015 – The initial registration period for the new .swiss internet addresses closed on 9 November 2015. 9’738 applications were received. The list of valid candidatures is available from today on the nic.swiss site. Interested parties now have 20 days to submit a rival application or make comments. The Federal Office of Communications OFCOM will assign uncontested addresses at the end of this period and will process disputes. The general phase opens on 11 January 2016 and will allow submission of new applications for .swiss domain names.
Press Release
Public or private businesses and organisations can now apply to acquire a .swiss internet address. During the initial phase launched on 7 September 2015, applications can relate only to trademarks registered in accordance with an ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) process, names associated with public bodies and distinctive signs protected in Switzerland. At a press conference this morning, federal councillor Doris Leuthard, the head of DETEC, stressed the importance to the Swiss economy of the availability of this new “shop window” abroad.
Press Release
The first phase for registering a .swiss domain name will run from 7 September 2015 until 9 November 2015. (more…)
The new .swiss internet domain will be launched in autumn 2015 and sector professionals must prepare for this event. (more…)
In technical terms, the domain “.swiss” has made important progress. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registered “.swiss” in the domain name system (DNS) infrastructure at the end of April 2015. IANA manages the DNS rootzone database, which contains delegation details of all top level extensions (http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db). The Federal Office of Communications can now take the next steps and is on schedule to make “.swiss” available to the Swiss community in autumn 2015. Interested organisations with a link to Switzerland can then submit their applications.
Berne will host the first Swiss Internet Governance Forum (Swiss-IGF) on 19 May. Among the themes selected by the organisers is an introduction to the new .swiss internet domain. (more…)
The infrastructure to manage the new .swiss domain name meets the criteria in relation to reliability, stability and security imposed on top-level internet domain operators. This was confirmed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the company responsible for managing internet addresses, at the beginning of the year after submitting the technical environment intended to manage .swiss to a series of tests which were successfully completed.
From a technical viewpoint, there is nothing to prevent the implementation of .swiss scheduled for this autumn. In the meantime, the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) is responsible for defining and implementing the business processes required for registering and managing domain names.
The Federal Office of Communications would like to work with an agency capable of devising and implementing appropriate measures for its communications campaign to publicise and promote the new internet domain .swiss. Communications activities are expected to start in June 2015 and end in September 2016, a year after the launch of the .swiss TLD, which is planned for autumn 2015.
An invitation to tender in accordance with Section 3 of the Ordinance on Public Procurement (OMP) was launched on 10.12.2014 on the official platform www.simap.ch (reference: project 120318). The deadline for submitting an application for market participation was set as 30.01.2015.
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