We’re pleased to say that on 20th March, 20i – in partnership with Nominet – will register an eligible ‘.uk’ domain name for you, for free for one year.
Free ‘.uk’ registration – the background
On 10th June 2014, UK registrar Nominet introduced the shorter ‘.uk’ top-level domain.
To prevent an open-season for opportunistic domain investors – who may have tried to register ‘.uk.’ versions of established ‘co.uk’ (and .org.uk & .me.uk) domains – Nominet ‘reserved’ the ‘.uk’ variants of domains already registered.
This gave the holder exclusive rights to the ‘.uk’ version of their domain.
That reservation expires on 1 July 2019 – three months away.
This means that many businesses that haven’t already paid for registration of their ‘.uk’ variant of their domain name could find it being used by someone else. Or they might have to pay high fees from domain investors to get control of it.
What we’re doing
On 20th March 2019, we’ll register a ‘.uk’ version of your existing domain name on your behalf. This will happen automatically: you don’t have to do anything (but you can opt-out if you like).
You’ll be informed by email which domains have been registered for you. It will then be under your control until 20th March 2020.
There are eligibility rules.
What makes me eligible for this free domain offer?
To be eligible for this offer, you need to be a UK citizen or UK-registered company and have a ‘co.uk’, ‘.org.uk’ or ‘.me.uk’ domain name already registered, and be a customer of 20i.
When the second-level domain (e.g. the ‘20i’ from ‘www.20i.uk’) is registered with different owners, TLDs will be given this priority:
So if you have a ‘.co.uk’ domain registered it will be guaranteed to be eligible.
If no ‘.co.uk’ version of your domain is registered and you have a ‘.org.uk’ domain, then you will also be eligible.
If no ‘co.uk’ or ‘.org.uk’ version exists and you have the ‘.me.uk’ version registered, then again, you’ll be eligible for the free ‘.uk’ domain for a year.
What’s next?
We’ll handle it for you.
As long as you’re the rightful owner of the domain, you don’t have to do anything. The free ‘.uk’ domain will be registered using the same details as the other ‘.co/.org/.me.uk’ domains, and we’ll let you know by email.
Your free year will expire on 20 March 2020. The renewal price for ‘.uk’ domains is currently £5.99/year.
If you don’t want a ‘.uk’ version registered for you, you can opt-out in My20i. You will need to have opted-out by 23:59 on 19th March 2019.
We partnered with Nominet to do this to save you time, money and (potentially) a lot of trouble. It’s just another way that 20i customers get extra value.
You can register a domain through 20i here. It will also include basic free hosting.
Note: newly-registered domains won’t be eligible for the free ‘.uk’ offer – it’s only for those that had Right of Registration reserved in 2014.
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