Mexico is finally allowing unlimited registration of its TLD (Top-Level Domain) extension, .Mx. While registration of third-level domains like .Com.Mx had been allowed, registration of the primary (second-level) domain extension had been severely limited to certain Mexican entities. And the third-level domains, priced at $250.00 for a minimum of two years, must have been beyond the reach of most Mexicans.



This has brought about some interesting results: for example, registration of .De, the official TLD of Germany is about Ten million; on the other hand, Nic Mexico, the administrator for Mexico's .Mx had allowed the registration of less than 300,000 domains since its inception twenty years ago; Germany has 82 million people, while Mexico's population approaches 110 million, 27 million of whom reputedly use the Internet. If the desire of Mexicans for their own extension is anything like Germany's it looks like there could be some explosive growth coming in .MX. The registrar giant Godaddy appears to think so: they recently announced an expansion of their services to Mexico and Spanish speaking customers on a scale not seen for any other ccTLD (country-code Top-Level Domain).

The Sunrise Period for the extension .Mx re-opening ends on July 31, 2009. Anyone reading this article will realize that that date came and went before it was published. Not that it would have done you much good anyway unless you owned a third-level .Mx domain (.Com.Mx, .Net.Mx, etc.); had you owned one of those you could have possibly traded it in for a straight second-level .Mx. And probably have set yourself up for endless wrangles in the next period.

The next period, termed the “waiting period,” begins on August 1 and ends August 31, 2009. During this period Nic Mexico will try to settle all the disputes occasioned by the competing parties trying to turn their third-level names into second-level names; the winners will be the registrants that held the third-level names longest.

From September 1 onward registration will be open without restriction except that new registrations will be apparently limited for a period of one year. The going price for registration that first year will apparently be in the thirty to thirty-five dollar range, quite a markdown from the original $125.00 but still probably a bit high for the average Mexican in this economy. Let us hope that Nic Mexico sees the light and the price comes down to .Com levels in the second year.

For the last twenty years the Mexican administrators have limited sales of the ccTLD .Mx to a select few. September 1, 2009 that will no longer be the case; anyone can buy a domain name with the .Mx extension. There are more Mexicans than Spaniards; more Mexicans than Frenchmen; more Mexicans than Germans and almost twice as many Mexicans as Englishmen. Domain names are about language. And one of the proudest, most numerous peoples on the planet speaking one of the most powerful languages is about to get a chance to express themselves. Get ready for a buying landslide.