Registration Overview:
The Canadian domain landscape is changing. The .ca registry, once run by a
co-operative under the University of British Columbia, is being transitioned
to a new, non-profit corporation (CIRA) on November 1, 2000. At that point,
registrars across Canada will be competing to offer .ca names to their
clients. CanadianDomains.org is one such registrar.
As a result of this registry change, all existing .ca registrants must
"pre-register" their existing names with the new authority (CIRA), through
an accredited registrar. Tucows is now offering pre-registration through our
domain resellers.
Registrants in the .ca namespace risk losing their names after 12/01/00
if they do not "pre-register" them.
"Pre-registration" officially begins Monday, 09/18/00.
Pre-registrations:
During the pre-registration process you can choose one of the following:
- pre-registration of an existing second level domain name
- pre-registration of an existing third level domain without upgrade
- pre-registration of an existing third or fourth domain with upgrade
keeping the old name
- pre-registration of an existing third or fourth level domain with
upgrade releasing the old name
Advance
Registrations:
On or around 11/01/00 (date still tentative), CIRA will begin accepting
new .ca registrations, under much less stringent registration restrictions.
Previously, .ca registrants were only allowed one registration per
individual/organization, and there were further rules restricting access to
the .ca space to federally incorporated organizations.
CanadianDomains.org is now accepting advance registration requests for
new .ca domain name. These requests will be kept in a queue until November
1, 2000, at which point CIRA will open its systems to the registrars'
advance registration queues.
Essentially, the only restrictions for new .ca registrations are that the
registrant must be any of the following:
- Canadian citizens / Permanent Canadian resident or legal
representative of aforementioned
- Canadian corporations, trusts, partnerships. and associations
Upgrading Third and
Fourth Level Domains:
Registrants with existing third or fourth level names can choose to
upgrade to second level name during the pre-registration process. The
following are CIRA rules:
An EXISTING REGISTRANT may request an upgrade of a third or fourth level
EXISTING REGISTRATION to a second level .ca Domain Name (for example
xy.on.ca to xyz.ca) prior to OTD (November 1, 2000).
A request for an upgrade will only be approved if:
- the EXISTING REGISTRATION existed in the .ca Registry operated by UBC
in August 1, 2000; and
- the requested Domain Name is not in conflict with any other Domain
Names in the .ca Registry at any level. (For example, if there are
EXISTING REGISTRATIONS of xyz.on.ca and xyz.bc.ca, neither EXISTING
REGISTRANT would be permitted to upgrade to the xyz.ca).
Registrants also have the option of simply renewing a third or fourth
level name and not upgrade. Additionally, registrants have the option to
discard the original third or fourth level domain name and only request the
upgrade.
Registration
Process:
During the registration process, CIRA will email the administrative
contact of the domain to confirm the application is correct and the
registrant accepts the terms and conditions of the agreement. The
administrative contact will have 48 hours to visit the CIRA site to confirm
the registration and accept the registration and accept their terms and
conditions..