.ax
| ccTLD | |
|---|---|
| Type | ccTLD |
| Status | Active |
| Country |
|
| Implemented | Jun. 21, 2006 |
| Registry | Ålands landskapsregering |
| Website | |
.ax is the ccTLD for Åland, an autonomous province of Finland. It is managed by Ålands landskapsregering[1], or Åland's Government.[2] They manage the registry services through "whois.ax".[1] [3]
The code "ax" comes from the ISO 3166 standard, and was assigned to Åland in 2004.[4] The letter "x" is not included in any major or locally used language, but other possible codes were already taken, e.g. .al by Albania, .ad by Andorra, and .an by what was at the time the Netherlands Antilles.
History[edit | edit source]
As a sub-national entity of Finland, the Regional Government of Åland (Ålands landskapsregering) maintained the domain ALAND.FI. domains.
On February 17, 2006, the Finnish parliament approved a modification of the laws regulating Finnish domain names to include the .ax top-level domain. During a three-year period, the aland.fi subdomain was phased out while .ax was used in parallel; no new registrations under the aland.fi subdomain were to be accepted, and all owners of domains under the aland.fi subdomain would receive registrations for the corresponding .ax domain.[5]
On March 17, 2006, Finnish president Tarja Halonen signed the bill into law, effective as of March 27 of the same year.[6] The government of Åland began accepting registrations immediately following the changing of the law.
On June 9, 2006, ICANN approved delegating the .ax top-level domain to the government of Åland.[5] The .ax domain was added to the root zone on 21 June 2006, and became active on 15 August 2006.[6]
Information and Rules[edit | edit source]
Anyone can be a user of an ax-domain name. The daily administration of ax-domain names is handled by registrars.
A .ax domain name can generally be freely selected. The law, however, has some limitations in terms of its form and content. The domain name must not be equal or imitate someone else’s protected name or trademark.[7]
Characters[edit | edit source]
A domain name must consist of at least two and a maximum of sixty-three characters.
Allowed characters in a domain name are:
- letters a-z;
- figures 0-9;
- other characters, e.g. "å", "ä", "ö".
A domain name may not:
- begin or end with a hyphen "-";
- start with the characters "xn--".[7]
References[edit | edit source]
ICANNWiki: Content Guide | Documentation | Development || Categories: Articles needing attention | Candidates for deletion || Projects: Internet & Digital Governance Library