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TLD to be removed from the DNS next week
Kevin Murphy,
July 21, 2015, 11:10:33 (UTC),
Domain Registries
The DNS has been growing by, on average 1.1 top-level domains per day for the last 18 months or so, but that trajectory is set to change briefly next week when a TLD is removed.
The ccTLD .an, which represented the former Netherlands Antilles territories, is expected to be retired on July 31, according to published correspondence between ICANN and the Dutch government.
Three territories making up the former Dutch colony — Sint Maarten, Curaçao, and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba — gained autonomy in 2010, qualifying them for their own ccTLDs.
They were granted .sx, .cw and .bq respectively. While the first two are live, .bq has not yet been delegated, though the Dutch government says it is close to a deal with a registry.
The Dutch had asked ICANN/IANA for a second extension to the removal deadline, to October 31, but this request was either turned down or retracted after talks at the ICANN Buenos Aires meeting.
Only about 20 registrants are still using .an, according to ICANN.
The large majority of .an names still showing up in Google redirect to other sites in .nl, .com, .sx or .cw.
.an is the second ccTLD to face removal this year after .tp, which represented Portuguese Timor, the nation now known as East Timor or Timor Leste (.tl).
Netherlands Antilles also included Aruba, now .aw.
IIRC, that split happened a loooong time ago.
.aw was delegated in 1996.
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba gained autonomy in 2010, and still without their own .bq TLD. They have the status of special municipalities of The Netherlands and almost 6 years later still not recognised by ICANN. Seems more like a politic issue to me where national interest of neighbouring countries are involved.