Toronto, Canada - November 7, 2001 - Tucows Inc. (OTCBB: TCOW ), a leading provider of wholesale domain name registrations, announced today that it will begin taking pre-registrations on Wednesday, November 7, 2001, for .NAME, the world’s only global generic top-level domain (gTLD) exclusively for personal name registrations. The registry is offering both personal domain name registrations and personalized e-mail forwarding. This should significantly increase the accessibility of personal names for registration by individuals. Tucows’ pre-registration period allows individuals to submit requests for domain names more than four months in advance of the formal registration period that begins March 2002. Participation in the pre-registration process does not guarantee successful registration of a domain name. Pre-registrations will be subject to random selection.
“The launch of .NAME demonstrates the continuing evolution of domain names into a flexible, mainstream product,” says Elliott Noss, President and CEO, Tucows Inc. “Clearly the industry is addressing the needs of registrants by offering more choice and more customized options.”
.NAME is operated by London-based Global Name Registry Ltd., and is the third of the seven new gTLDs approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to offer alternatives to the .com, .net and .org name spaces. The launch of .NAME follows that of .INFO, which went live on
October 1, 2001, and .BIZ which is scheduled to go live November 7, 2001.
“.NAME represents the third new registry that will become operational in a very short period of time,” continues Noss. “Each registry has its own policies, product lines and technical configurations, increasing the complexity of the registration process across multiple TLDs. Tucows’ unique OpenSRS platform offers our resellers one simple, streamlined interface to multiple systems. Our job is to help our resellers offer choice to their customers without having to undertake increased expense and technical complexity."
About Tucows
Tucows Inc. is a leading distributor of e-business services and applications on the Internet, with a network of more than 5,000 resellers in more than 100 countries around the world. The Tucows site offers more than 30,000 software titles in libraries located around the world, providing users with a fast local download. Tucows is an ICANN-accredited registrar and a leading provider of wholesale domain name registrations for country code and generic top-level domains plus web certificates. Tucows’ properties include Search and Reference Media sites consisting of Electric Library, Encyclopedia.com, and NewsDirectory.com. For more information, please visit: : http://www.opensrs.org or http://partner.tucows.com or go to https://www.tucows.com and click on Partner with Tucows.
For additional information, contact:
Joanna Becket
Investor Relations
Tucows Inc.
Tel: (416) 538-5442
ir@tucows.com
This news release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding, for example, the continued growth and success of Tucows' business, the introduction of new products and services and their success, the inability to further develop and achieve commercial success for the company’s business strategy, and the deployment of the company’s resources. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. More information about potential factors that could affect Tucows is included in the Risk Factors sections of Tucows’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to Tucows as of the date of this document, and Tucows assumes no obligation to update such forward- looking statements.
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