Opening up in July — .Asia is

Domains will be easier to register and open to people outside of Asia.

Ten years following its initial release, the .Asia top level domain name will become easier to register for people outside of Asia this summer.

Right now, registrants need to provide a regional contact or ID (essentially, a contact in Asia) ahead of a  .Asia domain can be registered. That will change on July 15 when the Charter Eligibility Requirement Policies are updated.

The fresh policy will eliminate the need for the local presence check during the registration process, so it will be possible to register a .Asia domain without jumping through hoops.

Right now, many domain name registrars offer a free or low-cost proxy in Asia for .Asia registrants. But some registrars, counting GoDaddy, follow stringent requirements for registrations.

There are over 200,000 registered .Asia domain names.