Tucows is the largest registrar to date to support the initiative.
Tucows, the largest wholesale domain name registrar, has said it will vote in favor of an initiative to replace five of Nominet’s board members. Nominet is a non-profit that runs the .UK country code domain name.
The registrar joins Namecheap, Gandi and many other registrars and hosting companies that will vote for change at the Extraordinary General Meeting on March 22.
The initiative seeks to refocus Nominet on running .UK rather than using profits to invest in other lines of business. I wrote about the initiative and its goals earlier this week.
In a blog post, Tucows threw cold water on Nominet CEO Russell Haworth’s claim that voting for the initiative would damage Nominet’s stability and reputation. Instead, it argues that refocusing the non-profit .UK would improve its stability. Writing about country code domain operators in general, Ashley La Bolle, Director of Domains at Tucows, stated, “The registry should have a narrow and focused mandate, deliver a stable and secure service, operate in a risk-averse manner, and manage costs appropriately.”
Votes will be apportioned based on the total number of .UK domains under management of those who vote, although each voter is capped at 3% of the total. Tucows will hit that cap with about 380,000 .UK domains under management.
