Domain names .brussels and .vlaanderen coming soon

The new internet domain names ending with the extensions .vlaanderen, .gent and .brussels are expected to become operational by the end of this year or early next year after being approved this week by the international body Icann, which manages domain names.

Popular extensions, such as .com, .net and .org are nearly used up, so Icann has received thousands of applications for new extensions in order to increase the number of them available worldwide. Thousands of ideas for new extensions, such as .art, .bank and .cafe, were submitted to Icann. Among those approved were the first four ever using non-Roman letters.

The new domain extensions .vlaanderen, .gent and .brussels will cost about €25 to register instead of the more usual €3-€5. That is because DNS Belgium, which handles all the country’s domain name registrations, including the .be extension, is including a surcharge of €20.

DNS is applying the surcharge, it says, because it is not expecting many registrations for the new domain names. “However, we have to cover our overhead; we have to invest a great deal in the new extensions,” DNS director-general Philip Du Bois told the magazine Data News. “The agreement with the Brussels region and the Flemish government allow for prices to fall once volumes reach an acceptable level. The .be domain names were more expensive in the beginning than they are now.”

image courtesy Rock 1997/Wikimedia Commons