It is administered by .CO Internet S.A.S.,[3] a subsidiary ofNeustar since 2014. As of July 10, 2010[update], there were no registration restrictions on second-level .co domains; any individual or entity in the world can register a .co domain.
.CO Internet S.A.S. fromBogotá,Colombia, was appointed as the manager for the .co TLD through a public procurement process that took place in early 2009. .CO Internet received the re-delegation approval as the manager of the .co TLD by ICANN on December 9, 2009, and received formal confirmation of the request by theUnited States Department of Commerce on December 23, 2009.[citation needed]
When they took over administration of the .CO domain, .CO Internet S.A.S. implemented new domain policies that were more flexible than the historic ones that had been administered by theUniversity of the Andes. The new policies were adjusted to international best practices and defined in consultation with local and international communities. With the new policies, Colombia would be able to sell second-level domain names to the world, such as widgets.co, where previously only third-level domain-names were available, such as widgets.com.co.
Notable single letter .CO domain names that have been allocated include:
On September 15, 2010, .CO Internet S.A.S. had taken registrations for over 500,000 .CO domain names.[5] As of January 2014, that number has grown to over 1.6 million .CO domains registered.[citation needed] As of December 2018, there were 2.2 million.[6]
With respect tosearch engine optimization, Google confirmed that "it will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted".[7]
The third-level domain registrations closely mirror the "traditional" IANA .com/.net/.org/.gov/.edu/.mil-hierarchy, with the addition of a national equivalent of .name. Different from registrations directly under .co, which are used to signal globally-relevant interests, third-level domains are used to signal locally-relevant business, organizations, academic institutions, and government.[citation needed]
In 2001, the university began to consider the possibility of marketing the domain as an alternative to thegeneric top-level domains. Thegovernment of Colombia objected on the basis that the university, a private entity, did not have regulatory oversight of the TLD and the Minister of Communications, Angela Montoya Holguín, wrote to them requesting that they not continue. In turn the university wrote toICANN, rejecting the government's objections and stating their intention to appoint asubcontractor to handle the commercialization of the domain.[9]
At a meeting on December 11, 2001, Holguín asked the Consultative Chamber and Civil Service of the Council of State to consider three issues:[10]
whether the .co domain is a public resource
if the domain is public resource, whether it is intrinsically-linked withtelecommunications
if the domain is linked with telecommunications, who should profit from its commercialization
In relation to these three issues, the meeting concluded that:[10]
the .co domain, having been assigned to Colombia, is of public interest
the administration of the domain is intrinsically-related to telecommunications, and hence falls under the purview of the Ministry of Communications, with the exception of those functions assigned to theICFES by the Ministry of National Education
unless theCongress of Colombia adopts an act allowing tax to be collected in relation to the registration of domain names, no amount can be charged for such a service
In response to the Council of State meeting, the university wrote to ICANN on 12 February 2002 stating that it had abandoned plans to commercialize the domain, and that as it could "no longer bear the administrative and operational responsibilities" it wished to discontinue its responsibility for operating the domain.[9]
Finally, with the enactment of Law 1065 of 2006, the Ministry of Communications of Colombia initiated a public consultation process involving local and international participants, including members of the ICANN community, with the objective of defining the future of the .CO TLD. As a result of that process, through Resolution 001652 of 2008, the Ministry approved new policies that would govern the administration of the .CO TLD.[11] A public procurement process began which resulted in the award of the administration contract to .CO Internet SAS. Finally, on February 7, 2010, the administration of the TLD was transitioned from the University of Andes to .CO Internet SAS, under the regulatory and policy supervision of the Ministry of Communications of Colombia.[12][13]
On July 20, 2010, second level .co domains became available to the rest of the world on afirst-come, first-served basis. In 2014, .CO Internet S.A.S was acquired byNeustar for US$109 Million, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Neustar.[14] It is responsible for the promotion, administration, and technical operation of the .co TLD.[5]
In 2020,GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) acquired Neustar Registry and became the operator of .CO domain names.[15][16][17]
Only accredited registrars are able to sell .co domain names directly; other registrars selling .co domain names are acting asresellers. The list of accredited registrars is available on the .CO Internet website,[18] and as of October 2011 there are 20 accredited registrars. Some of the 20 registrars operate under multiple brands.[19]
^abSalazar, César Hoyos; Church, Ricardo H. Monroy; Arce, Flavio Augusto Rodriguez; Jaramillo, Augusto Trejos; Reyes, Elizabeth Castro; Flórez, Francisco (December 11, 2001) [documents created and posted on December 18, 2002, except that the English PDF has that as its modify date and November 25, 2002 as its create date]. Written atBogota, D.C., Colombia."Radicación número 1.376, Referencia: INTERNET Nombres de dominio. ¿El dominio ".co" tiene carácter público? ¿Tiene competencia el Estado colombiano para regularlo?" [Radication number 1.376. Reference: INTERNET Domain names. Does the domain ".co" have a public nature? Does the Colombian State have the authority to regulate it?].Workshop on Member States' Experiences with ccTLDs. Geneva:Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), International Telecommunication Union (published March 3–4, 2003). ccTLD-011.Archived from the original on October 13, 2022. The original document is in Spanish, but there is an official English translation available. The translator is not specified.
^"Restricted Domain Names List"(PDF).GO.CO. Registry Services, LLC. March 16, 2010.Pursuant to Article 3.4 of Resolution 001652, 2008, the Administrator of the .CO ccTLD submitted before the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications during the Domain Names Policy Advisory Committee meeting held on November 9, 2009, a preliminary restricted domain names list. [...] the "Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications" (MINTIC for its acronym in Spanish) approved the following restricted domain name list
^".CO Accredited Registrars (.CO Partners)". .CO Internet S.A.S.,Bogotá,Colombia. RetrievedAugust 16, 2015.As a premium domain name space, .CO is available through a select list of Accredited Registrar partners and their resellers
