Second level .uk domains (and it may be good for domainers) — Nominet reconsiders

Fresh plan gives rights to existing domain registrants and offers lower pricing.

Nominet, the registry behind the .uk namespace for the United Kingdom, has put forth a fresh plan to offer second level domains to the public. Right now, registrations are only available at the third level.

The group’s previous proposal to offer domains such as example.uk instead of example.co.uk was shelved in February following a number of stakeholders lodged complaints regarding the program.

The earlier proposal wouldn’t have given priority to existing third level .uk domain holders. It also had a planned wholesale cost of £20 per domain per year, which is regarding ten times the cost of a third level registration.

The fresh plan, now open to community feedback, would give priority to the owner of a third level domain. If you own example.co.uk, .org.uk, etc. you’d get first dibs on example.uk. In the event that more than one of the same third level domains are registered (example.co.uk and example.org.uk), the holder of the oldest registered domain of the string would have senior rights.

Also, the price will be regarding £5.

This still places a burden on existing domain registrants, especially those with sizable portfolios. But it may strengthen the overall value of the .uk namespace, which will help domain investors that own .uk domains.

I don’t own any .uk domains, so I’m curious to hear from those that will be affected if this proposal becomes reality.