In 2011, the State Government of Victoria announced its plan to submit an application for the [[.victoria]] and [[.melbourne]] [[GeoTLD| geographical top level domain name]] ([[TLD]]) to the [[New gTLD Program]] of the [[ICANN|Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers]]. The government issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking for a partner to submit the application and to manage and operate the TLD under a revenue sharing agreement on October 19, 2011. <ref>[https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/dfs/?event=public.rft.showArchived&RFTUUID=F020CB28-D868-DD68-DFD741D90E8B3E2A Registry Operator to obtaining & operating multiple generic Top Level Domains]</ref> [[ARI Registry Services]], a leading registry service provider in Australia won the contract to operate the .victoria and melbourne TLDs. The company hired [[Ernst & Young]] and [[Melbourne IT]] to help in developing the application for the TLD. ARI Registry Service will also serve as registry operator for the [[.sydney]] string for the [[Government of New South Wales]]. | In 2011, the State Government of Victoria announced its plan to submit an application for the [[.victoria]] and [[.melbourne]] [[GeoTLD| geographical top level domain name]] ([[TLD]]) to the [[New gTLD Program]] of the [[ICANN|Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers]]. The government issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking for a partner to submit the application and to manage and operate the TLD under a revenue sharing agreement on October 19, 2011. <ref>[https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/dfs/?event=public.rft.showArchived&RFTUUID=F020CB28-D868-DD68-DFD741D90E8B3E2A Registry Operator to obtaining & operating multiple generic Top Level Domains]</ref> [[ARI Registry Services]], a leading registry service provider in Australia won the contract to operate the .victoria and melbourne TLDs. The company hired [[Ernst & Young]] and [[Melbourne IT]] to help in developing the application for the TLD. ARI Registry Service will also serve as registry operator for the [[.sydney]] string for the [[Government of New South Wales]]. |