Some 3.1 million .au domain names have transitioned to new infrastructure with domain name registry Afilias Australia, moving from a legacy system with Neustar.
The Ireland-headquartered company was chosen by the .au Domain Administration (auDA) in December for a four-year deal following a global tender process. The move was completed on 1 July.
The auDA said the transition advances a number of its goals for the top-level domain, which are to maintain and promote the operational stability and utility of the domain and ensure its security, confidentiality, integrity and availability.
“The transition to Afilias’ modern registry positions .au to meet the needs of Australia’s expanding digital economy, and offers all Australians the best possible service by ensuring the reliability and security of operations as well as the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data,” auDA chief executive Cameron Boardman said.
“The .au name space is essential national infrastructure. It forms the backbone of the digital economy.”
Aside from the transition to a new infrastructure, Afilias said the domain would have better security, abuse, spam and phishing protection, and an Australian management and support team.
The auDA also announced a 10 percent reduction in wholesale fees for .au names.
“Afilias is proud to support .au, one of the world’s leading country code top-level domains, as it enters a new era of growth and vitality enabled by modern, high capacity, secure and resilient infrastructure,” Afilias executive vice president Ram Mohan said.
“The .au registrars have done a wonderful job working with us on the transition, and we look forward to supporting them and the entire Australian internet community for many years to come.”
