The Somalia extension was re-delegated to The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in April 2009. The re-launch will begin on November 1, 2010 and will include:
• .SO – General Purpose
• .COM.SO – Commercial Entities
• .NET.SO – Network Operators
• .ORG.SO – Not-for-Profit Organizations
The registry plans to launch .SO in three phases:
• Sunrise (November 1-30, 2010): This phase is for holders of trademarks of national effect from any country that were fully registered on or before January 1, 2010. This is not a first come, first served launch. Therefore, names applied for during Sunrise will not be awarded until after the close of the Sunrise period. If the registry receives more than one application for the same domain name during Sunrise, an online auction will be held among qualified Sunrise applicants to determine the registrant of the domain name. The Registry has scheduled the Sunrise auctions for December 1-15, 2010.
• Landrush (December 16, 2010-February 9, 2011): During this period, any interested party may submit applications for domain names not registered during Sunrise. If a domain has more than one successful application, an online auction will be held between the applicants.
• General Availability (March 1, 2011): Domain names can be registered on a first come, first serve basis.
Somalia is located in Africa and has an estimated population of 10.1 million people and over the last 10 years has experienced one of the largest growth rates in the number of Internet users in Africa.
CSC is currently accepting orders for the .SO re-launch and will also be offering auction handling services for an additional fee.
For more information please contact your CSC Customer Service Specialist or call 888-780-2723 (North America) or +44 (0)20 7565 4090 (Europe).