.uk
.uk is the ccTLD for the United Kingdom. It is managed by Nominet UK.[1]
Rules and Restrictions[edit | edit source]
Any individual or legal person can register under a .uk domain.[2]
Second-level Domains[edit | edit source]
The following second-level domains are available.
- .co.uk: for commercial entities and purposes;
- .ltd.uk: for private limited companies;
- .me.uk: for personal names;
- .net.uk: for Internet Service Providers' infrastructure;
- .org.uk: for not-for-profit entities;
- .plc.uk: for public limited companies;
- .nic.uk: Network use only (restricted);
- .sch.uk: for schools (restricted).
Some SLDs are administered by third-party registrars as trustees:
- .ac.uk: for higher and further education and research institutions;
- .gov.uk: for national, regional, and local government bodies and agencies;
- .mod.uk and .mil.uk: for military and related purposes;
- .nhs.uk: for the National Health Service;
- .police.uk: for Police forces.
For policy reasons, Characters corresponding to an existing second-level domain in .uk shall not be permitted as a Third Level Domain within ".co.uk", ".me.uk", ".org.uk" and ".net.uk".
For a combination of policy and continuing technical reasons, the Characters "com" and "uk" shall not be permitted as an SLD or a Third Level Domain within ".co.uk", ."me.uk", ".org.uk" or ".net.uk".[2]
Characters[edit | edit source]
The Domain Name may only contain the following thirty-seven characters or a combination thereof:
- the twenty-six unaccented Roman letters (i.e. a-z inclusive);
- the ten western digits (i.e. 0-9 inclusive); and
- hyphens. The first or last Characters of a Third Level Domain may not be a hyphen.
Nominet does not offer Internationalised Domain Names and so domain names that start with the characters "xn--" (i.e. "xn" followed by two dashes) may not be registered.[2]