Cameroon Relaunches .cm-domains

Priced at 500 EURO ($700/ 328,000 FCFA) per cm-domain/2 years.

(Pressebox) Koeln, 05.07.2009 - The sunrise period of cm-domains, the country code Top Level Domain for Cameroon, has begun. The sunrise period of cm-domains ends at July 14, 2009.

Applicants for the sunrise period must hold a valid and issued trademark at the time of application.

If there is more than one valid Sunrise application for the same domain name, names will be awarded to the registrant with the oldest registered trademark.

The price is 500 EURO per cm-domain/2 years. There is also a application fee of 90 EURO, which is non-refundable.

The cm-domain is so closely spelled to the widely popular com-domains and cn-domains, that registering the names of trademarks at cm-domains now will prevent misuse of trade marks and domains in the future. Millions of internet users make typos when searching a com-domain and see instead of the com-domain a cm-domain in the browser. This is a strong arguement to register cm-domains.

The Landrush Period of cm-domains starts July 15, 2009 and ends July 31 2009.

There are no special requirements

In case there is more than one application per cm-domain, the domain will go into an auction system. The auctions will be held shortly after the end of the Landrush period.

The price at the Landrush Period of cm-domains is 299 EURO/2 years.The pre-registration is free of charge at ICANN accredited Registrar Secura (http://www.domainregistry.de/cm-domain.html)

Source: Presse Echo

Comments

[oyez]

again expensive domains for no good reason.

[Njonjo]

I can buy a .com, .org or .net domain name from godaddy.com for 10 dollars a year but the folks at camtel think a .cm domain name is worth $350? No wonder even companies (including some government institutions) in Cameroon prefer .com? Another huge revenue stream being wasted while Cameroon is virtually invisible on the web

[Papagower]

Whoever made this decision and set the prices thinks we are still in the early 90s, and harbors illusions on the value of a cm domain. This is what you get when you recycle the same old people with outdated ideas to remain in the government past their retirement age, and make decisions totally out of line with the current technological advancements and infrastructures in place. The requirement for a registered trademark is another level of bureaucracy that is not necessary to obtain a domain name. What a shame!

[Warren Azong]

Can't believe somebody thought this is such and great product, that at €500 for two years, customers will camp outside their offices queuing to sign up.

I am sure as part of their strategic planning, they must have anticipated large numbers of interested customers ready to fork out €500 /2 years and in an effort to try and reduce the numbers to a manageable level, they came up with this blind idea of registered trade mark as a requirement.

Well all I have for them, is they are in for a Waterloo.

[smartcalo]

These are really fools. A Domain name for 250Euro/year is simply beyond a silly joke. They will buy it themselves. .org, .com, .net,.de Domains cost less than 10 euros / year. Subdomains are Free and there are Millions of them available. To hell with their cm-Domains. Does the average Cameroonian even know what a domain is. Let us even say the average Camtel or mtn worker??

[Facter]

They are intending to sell them to shady operators, who use the domain as shady urls of prominent websites. They will also be purchased by the prominent websites themselves at those rates. They expect that cocacola or a shady artist will buy cocacola.cm. They have no interest in Cameroonians buying domain names and establishing their own presence on the internet. Lowlifes are running that country.

[JJ]

Do these folks know what a domain is ?