DNS.be is going to manage .vlaanderen

The Flemish government decided today DNS.be (.be registry) will be responsible for the management of the .vlaanderen extension. This was announced today by the registry.

As we’ve mentioned before, it is possible to apply for your own personalised gTLD via ICANN since mid January 2012. The Flemish government now decided they’ll also apply for their own extension, .vlaanderen. The filing of this application and the possible management of this extension has been outsourced by the Flemish government to DNS.be (.be registry) They’ve now got until April 22nd 2012 to file this application via ICANN.

DNS.be is very pleased they were chosen by the Flemish government. ‘Registering a domain name under .vlaanderen is a great opportunity for companies, organisations and individuals to express their link with Flanders,’ both the government and the registry say.

However it still isn’t certain .vlaanderen will indeed become the extension for Flanders. ICANN will verify all applications one by one after April 22nd. ICANN also already clearly stated they’ll only approve 500 applications for personalised gTLD’s. Question is if .vlaanderen will be one of those.