When I'm talking about restrictions, I don't mean that .ie has to be necessarily opened to the world. I mean that, as one would learn from the article, handregistering a .ie domain is rather lengthy (and if the largest Irish registrar thinks so, I trust it), at least compared to other TLDs.
Handregistering is the way that .ie domains are registered (well it is an automated process once the registrant has a registered business name certificate, a company name or a personal domain name application). The turn around on these domains going live tends to be a few hours. The main Irish registrars all have highly automated systems and use the registry API. It is not as fast as .com but then you may not remember the time that .com had a turn around of about twelve hours before the domain went live but .com domains were free in those days.
As this may slow down the process of getting businesses online, the use of an alternative TLD over the national one will be promoted.
It does not. Most businesses trade under a particular name and they tend to register that name as a domain. They would already have the entitlement documentation to hand and with a registered business number or a company number, registration is fastest. The Getting Business Online program is aimed at businesses that may not have websites and traditionally may not be web orientated. The whole process depends on website builder applications where the registrant can build their own website. Google supplies an Analytics account and a Google Adwords account. Google's real motivation behind this scheme, especially in countries where there is a strong ccTLD, is simply because their link based discovery of new websites sucks. Most new websites have no inbound links and are therefore invisible to Google's spiders.
Now where a business wants a domain that differs from their main business name or a registrant wants a particular domain, they may have to apply under the Discretionary category.
This is the website for the GIBO program in Ireland:
http://www.gettingbusinessonline.ie/
The costs of the registrations are absorbed by the registrars in each country and Blacknight.com would have absorbed the costs. This kind of loss leader program can only be run by big hosters and registrars.
In any month, over five thousand (5000) Irish hosted domains are deleted and over six thousand new ones are registered or transferred in to Irish hosters. The GIBO program (and the variants in other countries) is aimed at businesses who want to get online cheaply. These kinds of programs always have a high attrition rate in that when it comes to pay for the domain in the second year, a percentage of these businesses just let the domain drop. And this appears to be more the case for the .com registrations than the .ie registrations. Despite appearances, the Irish market has a very strong .ie/com axis (>80% of the market) and most new Irish businesses tend to use .ie as their primary brand because, simply put, most business is local.
The IE Domain registry had temporarily reduced the wholesale cost of registrations to .ie registrars for approximately six months of the launch of the GIBO program and that helped. However thinking that Blacknight.com has generally prioritised .co over .ie points to a misunderstanding of what is happening and how the domain registration and hosting business works. But it makes .co look good doesn't it?
And if things get any worse, actively developed .co websites will be able to apply for endangered species status.
Regards...jmcc
