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Top-level domain name in sight for global postal sector



The global postal sector is one step closer to obtaining its own top-level domain name on the Internet, to be known as .post (dot-post), thanks to the successful conclusion of negotiations between the Universal Postal Union and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).



The UPU is the first United Nations agency to negotiate such a contract with ICANN. UPU Director General Edouard Dayan called the agreement “historic” for respecting the UPU’s unique character as an intergovernmental organization bound by international law.

ICANN said earlier that the agreement represents “a significant accomplishment for the UPU, ICANN and the global Internet community”. ICANN CEO and president Rod Beckstrom added: “The UPU has helped mark out a path for other intergovernmental organizations to sponsor their own top-level domains and this helps us expand our multi-stakeholder relationships in this field.”



The agreement must now go through a public comment process during a 30-day period before ICANN’s board of directors will consider it for final approval. The public comment period will begin after ICANN’s meeting this week in Seoul, Republicof Korea.  



The .post top-level domain represents a platform for innovation in the area of global postal services, and will provide opportunities for linking the physical and electronic dimensions of postal services.



“A top-level domain for a service-oriented industry such as ours is an opportunity to develop a trusted space on the Internet for integrating physical and electronic postal services,” said Paul Donohoe, e-business manager at UPU headquarters, responsible for the domain application and ICANN negotiations. “.post will be a unique and focused Internet domain with the potential to connect the entire postal community and its customers. The domain will enable the UPU and the postal sector at large to work on delivering new innovative Internet-based international postal services, such as hybrid mail, e-commerce, e-identity, e-communication and e-government, and built on UPU standards.”



For Poste Italiane’s Giovanni Brardinoni, who chairs the UPU’s standards and technology committee, .post represents the future of postal services. “Not only will .post help postal operators such as Poste Italiane to further develop secure electronic services, including registered electronic mail, but consumers will be sure they are receiving electronic communication from a secure and trusted source. The possibilities are endless.”



The .post project will be presented to UPU member countries over the coming days, as more than 800 delegates assemble at UPU headquarters in Berne from October 26 to November 13 for the 2009 session of the Council of Administration.



 

About the Universal Postal Union

Created in 1874, the UPU, based in Berne (Switzerland), is an intergovernmental organization and the primary forum for cooperation between governments, Posts and other stakeholders of the worldwide postal sector. In addition to maintaining a genuinely universal network that provides modern products and services, it establishes the rules for international mail exchanges among its 191 members and makes recommendations to stimulate mail volume growth and to improve the quality of service for customers. Some 5.5 million employees process and deliver 433 billion domestic letter-post items annually, as well as some 5.5 billion international items and over 6 billion ordinary parcels. About 660,000 postal establishments make the postal network the largest physical distribution network in the world. The UPU celebrated 60 years as a specialized agency of the United Nations in 2008.