Speed-dating new TLD Registry Providers: Afilias
July 19th, 2008
Note: you may want to read the Introduction and Part One of this series for a quick overview of the “speed-dating” process and some notes about the results presented here. Answers are from the registry operator, and don’t represent our independent evaluation.
[← VeriSign | Full list | CentralNIC →]
Contestant #2 - Afilias
Afilias is one of the “big three” registry operators, the other two being VeriSign and NeuStar. Afilias is owned by a consortium of registrars, including most of the large ones. It launched with the introduction of .INFO in the fall of 2001 and has continued to compete very effectively for business from new and existing TLDs. There’s a (selective) history of Afilias and some of its accomplishments on their site.
| Represented by | Steve Heflin, Kareem Jiwani |
| TLDs currently supported | .INFO, .MOBI, .ORG, .AERO, .ASIA, .IN, .SC, .ME, .BZ |
| Provides marketing support | Yes |
| Hosts registry on their system | Yes |
| Open-source software all or in part | No |
| Subscription, per-unit, flat-fee pricing | Open to any model |
| Invest money in TLD? | Yes |
| Can accommodate complicated business rules | Yes |
| DNS resolution services? | Yes |
| WhoIs services | Yes |
| Customer profile (registration volume) | Any |
| IDN support | Yes |
| DNSSEC support | Yes |
| IPv6 support | Yes |
| Help with application, lobbying | Yes |
| Registrar system included | No |
| Differentiating factors | More customers have switched to them; have done the most launches; close assistance to .ASIA for its launch; worked to unknot and launch .IN |
If you have a view on Afilias’ service offerings, please do leave a comment.
[← VeriSign | Full list | CentralNIC →]
Tags: Afilias, new gTLD, new TLD, new top-level domains, Steve Heflin, Karim Jiwani, ICANN, domain registry
