Afilias Limited, the ICANN-designated registry operator for the .INFO top level domain (TLD) today announced that it will apply for the Simplified and Traditional Chinese language equivalents of .INFO under ICANN’s new gTLD program.

ICANN will only accept applications for new gTLDs between January 12, 2012, and April 12, 2012. Since it will likely be several years before anyone can again apply for an IDN version of a gTLD, we’re pleased to lead the way for IDN use and adoption.”

“Given the global presence of Afilias, Internationalized Domain Names — informally known as IDNs — have always been of great interest to us. We were the first company to launch IDN email, and believe that having IDN equivalents of .INFO for the world’s most populated country, in its primary languages, will be a major benefit to all Internet users in China,” said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and CTO, Afilias.

Roland LaPlante, Afilias Senior Vice President and CMO, said, “ICANN will only accept applications for new gTLDs between January 12, 2012, and April 12, 2012. Since it will likely be several years before anyone can again apply for an IDN version of a gTLD, we’re pleased to lead the way for IDN use and adoption.”

Afilias will support the new Chinese versions of .INFO with the same technology that will support many other new TLD applications: a state-of-the-art EPP registry, a globally diverse and redundant Anycast DNS network, 24×7 call-center and technical support, and links to the global distribution channel. In addition, Afilias provides other premium solutions to augment its registry offerings, including technology to enable mobile phone compatibility for websites and a unique IDN-capable email solution.

All Afilias services are DNSSEC and IPv6 ready, and reflect more than 10 years of experience in supporting gTLDs operating under ICANN contracts.””