ICANN selects Tucows to receive bulk transfer.
[Update: I have received clarification from Tucows that 1stDomain did not renew its accreditation with ICANN, rather than being terminated due to any sort of breach of contract. Further, it appears that registries did not cut off the registrar’s access, but instead 1stDomain did this to facilitate the transfer.] Following the de-accreditation of domain name registrar 1stDomain.net, Tucows has been selected by ICANN to take over its customers’ domain management.
Some registries have cut off 1stDomains’ access, making it difficult for customers to manage their domain names. Tucows will manage the approximately 4,000 domain names through its retail operation Hover. Hover hopes to start emailing access usernames and passwords within the next 48 hours. No domain names should expire in the process since Hover gives a 40 day grace period on expired domain names.
It’s kind of surprising that 1stDomain has any domain names under management, given that its web site looks like it was created in 1994 and its copyright notice extends only to 2005.
Last year Tucows handled a bulk transfer from another de-accredited registrar, Parava. Hopefully this transfer will be easier for Tucows than the last one.
Great, when is ISPReg next?
Parava was a special case. It was really tough to sort out who owned what because of all of the discrepancies in the registration data. Turns out, our team did an awesome job of handing the transfer and recovery – from a data management perspective, it went very smoothly. Unfortunately, a lot of registrants seem to have not received what Parava sold them, missing years, etc. but once they were moved to our registrar, we were able to make them happy pretty quickly.
The 1stDomain transition has been amazing in comparison. Having the cooperation of the old registrar is a big benefit and the 1stDomain team has been a huge help to our staff. 1stDomain always ran a great registrar, and this transition is going incredibly smoothly.
If any 1stDomain customers have any questions we can help with, they should feel free to call or send us an email to [email protected].
Ross Rader
General Manager, Hover
a division of Tucows Inc.