India Companies Keen On .asia Domain

Indian companies are making a beeline to grab the .asia domain. According to sources, Bharti Airtel, Reliance ADAG, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, T-series and several other companies have already expressed interest in buying .asia domain names.

“We expect about 30,000 .asia domains to be registered by February, 2008,” says Ching Chiao, VP - Community Relations at DotAsia registry based in Hong Kong.

“We have got the permission to launch .asia domain from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) after six years of deliberations. The .asia community will be beneficial for all companies having Asia wide operations,” he added. ICANN is the apex body that registers, manages and introduces new domains.

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In India, Net4, an Internet Service Provider for enterprises, along with two other ICANN registrars Directi, GoodLuckDomain will offer the .asia domains. “In the first phase we will offer the domains to all sovereign rights holders (like government or industry associations).

"The second phase will be open for companies having registered trademarks. The third phase will be for companies who have applied for trademarks. In the fourth and last phase we will offer a land rush which will close in one day," Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4 said.