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.uk

.uk is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us; it was initially meant to be .gb, following the same naming scheme as other countries, but .uk went live so early in the history of the DNS system that .gb fell into disuse. .uk has used OpenDNSSEC since March 2010. As of April 2021, it is the fifth most popular top-level domain worldwide, with over 10 million registrations.

History
In October 1984, RFC 920 set out the creation of ccTLDs using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. "GB" is the UK's ISO 3166 country code. However, the UK academic network Name Registration Scheme, JANET NRS, had defined "UK" as the top-level domain a few months before the compilation of the ISO-derived list. Consequently, .uk was chosen and registered on 24 July 1985. .gb was reserved but never widely used and it is no longer possible to register domains under that ccTLD. As with other ccTLDs in the early days it was originally delegated by Jon Postel to a "trusted person" to manage. Andrew McDowell at UCL was assigned .uk, the first country code delegation. (Ministry of Defence), parliament.uk (Parliament), bl.uk and british-library.uk (the British Library), nls.uk (the National Library of Scotland), nhs.uk (The National Health Service), and jet.uk (UKAEA as operator of the Joint European Torus experimental fusion tokamak). Currently, management of the .uk domain name is delegated by IANA to Nominet UK. It is possible to directly register a domain name with Nominet UK at £80+VAT as of 2021, but it is faster and cheaper to do it via a Nominet-accredited domain registrar costing in the region of £10+VAT in 2021. ==.uk right of registration==
.uk right of registration
New registrations directly under .uk have been accepted by Nominet since 10 June 2014 08:00 BST; however, there was a reservation period for existing customers who already had a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or .plc.uk domain to claim the corresponding .uk domain, which ran until 06:00 BST on 25 June 2019. If a domain was registered before 23:59 UTC on 28 October 2013 the user had the rights to the equivalent .uk domain (providing there was no other corresponding .co.uk, .org.uk, me.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk or .net.uk registered). ==Second-level domains==
Second-level domains
Active.ac.uk – academic (tertiary education, further education colleges, research establishments (such as the British Antarctic Survey) and learned societies) • .bl.uk – used solely for the British Library.co.uk – commercial entities and purposes (the most popular second-level domain for .uk, majority of .uk registrations are on .co.uk domain) • .gov.uk – government (central, devolved and local) • .judiciary.ukjudiciary of England and Wales.ltd.uklimited companies.me.uk – personal names • .mod.uk – armed forces and Ministry of Defence establishments and systems • .net.uk – ISPs and network companies (unlike .net, use is restricted to these users) • .nhs.ukNHS organisations and trusts • .nic.uk – network use only (reserved exclusively for Nominet UK) • .org.uk – not-for-profit entities • .parliament.ukParliament of the United Kingdom and the devolved national parliaments and assemblies • .plc.ukpublic limited companies.police.uk – police forces in the UK and law enforcement organisations. • .rct.uk – used solely for the Royal Collection Trust.royal.uk – used solely for the royal family website • .sch.uklocal education authorities, schools, primary and secondary education, community education • .ukaea.uk – used solely for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority .co.uk, .ltd.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .nic.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk and .sch.uk are managed by Nominet UK and except for .nic.uk are available for registration by the public (though they all carry various degrees of restrictions). Other second-level domains are managed by various government agencies, and generally more strongly controlled. Inactive.govt.uk – former government domain, now deleted and replaced by .gov.uk. • .orgn.uk – former non-profit organisations domain, now deleted and replaced by .org.uk. • .lea.uk – local education authorities; since fallen out of use. • .mil.uk – the Ministry of Defence have always used .mod.uk for their external domain, but use .mil.uk on their private network. .mil.uk exists only as a CNAME for .mod.uk in the .uk zone file. Rejected.cym.uk – A second-level domain for Wales; it did not have support of the Welsh Internet community, with a .cym domain being proposed, though later rejected. Top-level domains of .cymru and .wales have since been delegated to the root in 2014. • .scot.uk – A second level domain for Scotland; it was rejected by Nominet. A top-level domain of .scot approved on 10 June 2014 and been delegated to the root since 13 June 2014. • .sco.uk – A second level domain for Scotland. • .soc.uk – proposed for Social and Society use. ==Allocation of domain names==
Allocation of domain names
Allocations are on a strict first-come, first-served basis to qualified applicants. There are no territorial restrictions: applicants need not have any connection to the UK other than those outlined below for .ltd.uk and other restricted domains. .co.uk is by far the most used of the domains, followed by .org.uk then .me.uk. .plc.uk and .ltd.uk are only rarely used. The number of new registrations for each of the different .uk domains on a month by month basis can be seen on the Nominet UK website. The intended restriction of .co.uk to companies is purely nominal; in practice it is open to any and all applicants. Likewise, whilst .org.uk is for organisations, there are no restrictions on registering domains. While .me.uk originally had no restrictions on registrants it has since been tightened up to require registrants to be natural persons (i.e. not companies, etc.). However, registrants in .ltd.uk must be, and remain, private limited companies incorporated under the UK Companies Acts. In addition, names can only be registered if they correspond (in accordance with the algorithm in the rules public research establishments, and learned societies such as the Royal Society. Primary and secondary education uses .sch.uk. ==sch.uk==
sch.uk
Unusually, .sch.uk domains are allocated at the fourth level, with the third level being taken up by the name of the local authority (LA, previously LEA or local education authority) e.g. schoolname.leaname.sch.uk. For example, the Little Ilford School in Newham has the domain name littleilford.newham.sch.uk and the West Exe School in Exeter, Devon has the domain name westexe.devon.sch.uk. Previously applications were made in the normal way, but after Nominet came to an arrangement with the education authorities, one domain per school was issued automatically. Those that had already used another domain were still given one and were able to redirect it to their main domain. ==United Kingdom-related top level domains (TLDs)==
United Kingdom-related top level domains (TLDs)
Country-Code TLDs (ccTLDs) GeoTLDs ==See also==
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