.nz news & views

	Monday, 28 July 2003

ihug is approved as .nz registrar Ihug have just been approved by the DNC as an authorised .nz registrar. This is one of the last major Domainz resellers to move over to full registrar status. The last of the large .nz providers that are not registrars would be iprolink, TelstraClear and Walker Wireless. With the comment from the DNC that as soon as the sale of Domainz occurs the domain name allocation process will end means I would expect those 3, and any other Domainz resellers, to apply for registrar status before September. 1:22:30 PM      Like to comment? []

	Sunday, 27 July 2003

NBR on Domaiz sale NBR has a story on the sale process of Domainz. It states that 10 bidders have been short listed and that is mix of local and international bidders. The Executive Director of InternetNZ has commented on the story and did not state that the number of bidders was incorrect. will be very interesting what the final purchase price will be in the end esp based on the information I have about the significant losses it is currently making. 11:47:01 PM      Like to comment? []

Sunday Times on newzealand.com Sunday Star Times has an excellent article on information resulting for a OIA request of ACT MP Rodney Hide on the newzealand.com purchase. I would give quotes from it but so many of them that good that you might as well just read the article. 11:42:01 PM      Like to comment? []

	Wednesday, 23 July 2003

.geek.nz launch date The DNC has announced that .geek.nz will be live at 11am on August 26th. Lets hope that the saga around the launch of .maori.nz does not occur with .geek.nz. 5:16:58 PM      Like to comment? []

	Monday, 21 July 2003

Domainz Business Plan The information I gained about Domainz loses (both money and names) has resulted in further information. Seems that Domainz has a 'Business Plan' and had a number of forecasts or comments in it such as: Aquire 7,000 new 'retail' customers Have 63,500 names by 31/12/03 Be the 'premium provider' (with a premium price?) Domainz personnel represent the most experienced and expert ‘human resource’ in the .nz domain name registration market. Wonder what else will come out of the woodwork about Domainz in the next few days? 12:04:02 PM      Like to comment? []

	Thursday, 17 July 2003

Why would you buy Domainz? Just read some interesting factoids about Domainz. Now, I assume these are true and not provided to me as false. Where I got these from has been proven to be highly accurate in the past so I have decided to post them. Also the information seems to be a few months old but still interesting none the less (and some confirmation with Domainz public statements). It appears that Domainz had losses of $154,000 in January and $176,000 in February. Based on the Domainz Annual Report losses for the year ending March 31st was $39,547. This means that the burn rate of funds at Domainz must be huge. Also at the end of March Domainz only had listed 42,500 names with a further 30,000 names under .nz resellers. It seems they expect market share by the end of the year to drop to 28,000 - 35,000 names plus 10,000 left with the rump of the .nz providers for a total of 38,000 - 45,000 names. This will about 27% to 32% of the market. Finally, in the Domainz Annual Report (which I do not recall seeing at the InternetNZ AGM) most of these figures are confirmed such as it stating up to end of March 55,740 names were transferred as well as 'core' market share (exc. .nz providers) was 35%. So, how much is Domainz worth again? 3:54:09 PM      Like to comment? []

	Wednesday, 16 July 2003

IDG on Domainz sanction I realised last Friday that I had the wrong week for the Domainz sanction. It is in fact 9am today to 9am Friday. IDG has a story on the sanction occuring as well. 10:46:14 AM      Like to comment? []

	Friday, 11 July 2003

Domainz use of the DNC registrar logo The Domainz website has a variation on the Authorised Registrar logo. Now, it looks like they have actually changed the logo to 'fit in' with their colour scheme. The Domainz version looks different compared to the usage by another registrar (the colour not the wording). I have no idea what the terms of use are for these logos (as I can't find anything on the DNC site about it) but I wonder if the colour change was is acceptable to the DNC? 11:42:25 AM      Like to comment? []

	Tuesday, 8 July 2003

IDG on .geek.nz IDG has a story on the .geek.nz approval and how it is being implemented sans DNSSEC until everyone gets together and chats about it. 11:15:30 PM      Like to comment? []

	Monday, 7 July 2003

Domainz sanction to start Wednesday The sanction that the DNC applied against Domainz for the breach(es) of the .nz policy will soon come into effect. Domainz from 9am Wednesday to 9am Friday will be unable to accept new registrations or transfers. Renewals and changes will not be impacted by this sanction. The amusing thing is that this is about the same time as the due diligence is occurring by the short listed bidders. 1:50:03 PM      Like to comment? []

InternetNZ By Election voting starts Voting in the InternetNZ by election has started for the vacant Secretary and Council positions. I decided to place my name forward for Secretary after a years break for several reasons. The main is because InternetNZ is struggling with what to do with itself after all of the SRS implementation issues are past. Please vote early and often! :-) 1:39:05 PM      Like to comment? []

	Sunday, 6 July 2003

40th registrar approved On Friday the 40th .nz registrar was approved. 30 of them are connected to NZRS and another 10 are approved but not 'live'. 11:47:32 PM      Like to comment? []

.geek.nz approved .geek.nz was approved by InternetNZ on Friday. A short announcement of it was made. In the last week a large amount of discussion was about the 'last minute' submission about the support for DNSSEC for the 2LD. The end result is that it will be implemented as per the other 2LD's and the process of supporting, or not, DNSSEC will be reviewed in next few weeks. 11:29:02 PM      Like to comment? []

	Friday, 4 July 2003

IDG on .geek.nz IDG has a story on the .geek.nz implemenation 'issues'. This is because of a submission on the last day from the applicant requesting support for DNSSEC and IPv6 for the 2LD. 8:52:48 AM      Like to comment? []

	Thursday, 3 July 2003

First Registry lock and kmart.co.nz complaint The May NZOC report has two interesting items in it. The first is about the first domain name locked at the registry due to a court order. This was for bikesdirect.co.nz. It is reported that the DNC took legal advice and then instructed NZRS to place a lock on the name to ensure it was transferred to the 'correct' (in the eyes of the courts) entity. The other item is a complaint on the whois details of kmart.co.nz from an Australian legal firm. My reading of this looks like the firm wanted the name cancelled due to alleged incorrect details. In the end the DNC was able to contact the registrant via the details so it became a non issue. 7:16:11 PM      Like to comment? []

	Wednesday, 2 July 2003

IDG on Domainz bidders shortlist IDG has a short story on the Domainz sale shortlist process. After reading it I am left with wondering were more than 2 bidders even short listed? 8:08:15 AM      Like to comment? []

	Tuesday, 1 July 2003

nzoom story on Domainz and .nz I had missed this nzoom story from mid last week. It quotes fDomainz CEO and comments .nz growth. 9:01:18 PM      Like to comment? []