World’s youngest country releases its own extension

The youngest country in the world, South Sudan, has launched the release of its own domain name extension. From now on you can request your name under the third level extensions .com.ss, .net.ss, .biz.ss and .me.ss.

The second level extension of South Sudan is .ss, which is quite unfortunate given usage of this abbreviation in history. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why only third level extensions are available for the time being.

The extension will be released in 4 stages:

1) The Sunrise: until July 15th 2020
During the sunrise, holders of a registered trademark or company name can apply for their name. The name must be registered for at least 2 years and you must provide proof that you are indeed entitled to the name in question (eg a company certificate, trademark registration, …).

2) The Landrush: July 17th 2020 to August 17th 2020
During the landrush, anyone who wishes to, can request a name under one of the third level extensions. If there are multiple applications for the same name, the name in question will be sold through an auction to the highest bidder after the landrush.

3) Early Access Period (EAP): August 19th 2020 to August 29th 2020
During the Early Access Period (EAP) anyone who wishes to, can register a name under one of the third level extensions. The names will be assigned through the first come, first served principle. The price of the names will gradually decrease day by day.

4) General Availability (GA): from September 1st 2020
From September 1st 2020 onwards, anyone who wishes to, can

register a name under one of the third level extensions for a fixed price. The names will be assigned on the basis of the first come, first served principle.