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Domain names now available with Greek characters!
Nikos Kapsomenakis Jul 7, 2005 The registration process started on Monday July 4th and the users’ response was overwhelming taking into account Greek standards.
Only at the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission and within a period of four hours, almost 5.000 applications for registration of domain names with Greek characters and the Latin “.gr” were submitted for authorization. This number will tend to increase significantly, since applications were also received by the rest of the officially accredited registrars (almost 260) that operate in Greece.
Based on the new regulation, a Greek domain name can be registered in upper or lower case letters based on the Greek alphabet using the equivalent punctuation while at the same time the domain will be registered on behalf of the same user at all possible combinations (with or without punctuation, in upper or lower case letters).
According to the Gr – Hostmaster, the registry of “.gr” domain names, a feature of the registration process of domains will be the concept of “Bundle”. Bundled domains are going to be those that differentiate only in punctuation but are otherwise the same to a main form. Any domain that is a Homograph of the original registration, written with Greek characters that are similar with Latin characters, may also become part of the Bundle.
Domain names that could be registered in each bundle are not automatically registered for the registrant but are instead barred from the list of available domain names until this particular registrant decides to “Activate” one or more of them. Each activation has a cost, depending on the registrar the registrant decides to use.
Even though Greek officials believe that this initiative will further boost the use of internet in Greece, there are some concerns that the new format will confuse people.
It is worth noticing that the maximum registration cost for a domain name for a two years’ period is 44€ (plus 19% VAT), for the transfer of a domain the charge is also 44€ (plus 19% VAT), while the renewal fee for a period of two years is 29.30€ (plus 19% VAT). The companies that have been officially appointed as registrars, need to pay a fee of 11.8€ to the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission for every registration
Sources :
Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission
Gr - Hostmaster
List of the Greek characters available for registration
Greek homograph character table
2 Responses to “Domain names now available with Greek characters!”
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February 19th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Η χρέωση (11 ευρώ) ΕΕΤΤ, είναι μεγάλη και υποθέτω ότι μετακυλίεται στον Πελάτη.
Γενικότερα οι χρεώσεις για registration στην Ελλάδα είναι πολύ ψηλές.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Domains with Greek Characters are not used a lot, mainly because IE browser doesn’t support Unicode domain names. A plugin needs to be downloaded to add this functionality.