Today, auDA released the following important statement regarding the updated new to policy changes in the existing .COM.AU space as well as what the licensing or “Priority Application Fee” is going to be for Direct .AU domain names.
The auDA newsletter reads as follows:
The auDA board resolved some of the outstanding issues concerning the implementation of second level registrations and the new .au licensing rules at its meeting this week.
Implementation of second level registrations
Second level registrations are still scheduled to be implemented in Q4 2019.
Fee for second level names
The wholesale fee for second level names will be the same as the existing open second level name spaces such as .com.au, .net.au, .org.au etc.
The wholesale price of .au domain names applies to auDA accredited registrars. The retail price is set by .au registrars and their resellers, and varies depending on the level of services provided.
Priority registration process
The draft rules for the priority registration process are available here.
The cut-off date is 4 February 2018
The cut-off date determines which priority category an existing third level .au domain name is assigned to.
Names registered on or before 4 February 2018 are assigned to priority category 1.
Names registered after 4 February 2018 are assigned to priority category 2.
The priority category is relevant to the priority application process for registrants of existing third level .au domain names and can help determine who gets to register the exact match at the second level where there are competing applications for a given name.
Priority application fee
The wholesale priority application fee has been set the same as the .au wholesale fee and will include one year of .au registration.
The wholesale annual priority application fee for contested names is set the same as the .au wholesale fee.
.au Licensing Rules
The Board also approved the .au licensing rules subject to receiving further advice from the Australian Government on clause 2.17.
Q4 2019… so by the end of the year we will have to decide if we want to pay for the .au equivalent of each domain?
I got an email through recently for the .uk equivalent about registering it.
Still not sure how popular the direct au will be, whether general population Internet user people will be confused.