December 17, 2004

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said earlier this week that it has moved its commercial and technical negotiations with the .job and .mobi sponsored top-level domains to the next phase.

The .job domain caters to the human resources community, while the .mobi domain accommodates the mobile device industry and users.

Nokia first applied to manage the .mobi domain in 2000, but was rejected. For the current application, Nokia applied with Microsoft and Vodafone on board.

According to reports, the companies plan to launch a joint venture of 12 companies to mange the registry, if it is approved. The .jobs application was filed by a company called EmployMedia LLC.

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The process of selecting new sponsored top-level domains is being made from a pool of ten applications, ICANN said.

The .travel and .post sTLDs were given preliminary approval in October, joining .aero, .coop, .edu, .gov, .mil and .museum, which have already been approved by ICANN.

ICANN has yet to rule on six other sTLD proposals in this year's crop of applications, which include .asia, .cat, .mail, two .tel proposals, and .xxx.

Source: The WHIR