Last month, there were numerous articles that discussed the potential demise of the .IO domain name extension following news that the “UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius.” I suspect this was surprising news to many of the companies that operate on .IO domain names without any connection to the region where this ccTLD domain extension is assigned.
This morning, Kim Davies, who serves as the Vice President, IANA Services and President, Public Technical Identifiers, published an article on the ICANN website about what could happen to the .IO extension if sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago will move to Mauritius. It is true, the .IO extension could potentially be retired, and Davies outlines what could happen and the timeline for that:
“There is a possibility that “IO” may be removed as an assigned code in the ISO 3166-1 standard. Should this happen, ICANN’s community-developed retirement policy will apply. In essence, a five-year time window will commence during which time usage of the domain will need to be phased out. That time window might be extended under certain circumstances.”
Personally, I think it is highly unlikely we will see the .IO extension disappear. I think there are too many businesses (and too much money) connected to .IO domain names to see it removed. With so much revenue coming from domain name renewals alone, I would imagine a deal will be cut somewhere along the line to keep the .IO extension operational regardless of what happens to the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.
That being said, the risk would be considerable to the companies operating on .IO domain names (and domain investors).
Another reason to not build your business on a ccTLD domain extension. I don’t even trust .CA will stay here in Canada.