SU domains still going strong...?

Multilingual Search reports that ICANN's efforts to delete the now obsolete SU (=Soviet Union) domain are met with rather fierce resistance from Russian webmasters, ISPs and even the Registry itself.

In a statement of September 2007 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) had asked "... the current .SU operators to make it clear to the .SU registrants the issues surrounding the domain, as well as to freeze new registrations until its future is clear”. Multilingual Search now reports that as a reaction to ICANN's statement, the .SU domain operators announced a 80 per cent cut in their prices to bring the .SU domain in line with the pricing of the .RU domain and thus made it more attractive. Obviously, this was not what ICANN had intended, and after some negotiations between ICANN and the SU operators a compromise was reached. This compromise tentatively accepts the idea of decommissioning the .SU domain (within an 'anticipated time frame' of 10 to 15 years...) but at the same time reserves the option of keeping the extension alive under a special 'exceptionally reserved status'.

The argument that the .SU extension is resisting death rather successfully is further supported by recent reports that .SU registrations increased by 45 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.