.us

Industry:	TLD
Founded:	1985
Country:	USA
Website:	http://www.neustar.us
Key People
Allen Gorldberg, Corporate Communications

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.us is the country code top-level domain name (TLD) for United States and its operations is overseen by the Department of Commerce. The agency is also responsible in choosing an administrator for us TLD. Neustar is the current administrator of the US domain name.

History

The us TLD was first established in 1985 however, it was only until April 2002 when the second level TLD became available for registration by individuals and organizations in the U.S.

Dr. Jon Postel is one of the original administrators for usTLD who delegated management of localities within the usTLD hierarchy to individuals, organizations, and State governments. The operational guidelines drafted by the original administrators of the us TLd states that the delegated managers are "trustees for the delegated domain and have a duty to serve the community. The designated [delegated] manager is the trustee of the domain for the domain itself and the global Internet community. Concerns about “rights” and “ownership” of domains are inappropriate. It is appropriate to be concerned about “responsibilities” and “service” to the community.” The delegated managers worked voluntarily without pay as they perform registry or registration operations.

In 2001, the Department of Commerce through the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded Neustar to serve as the administrator of the us TLD with the objective to further develop and expand the operation of the United States domain name. The agency renewed Neustar's contract to administer the us TLD on October 25, 2007.

Neustar is one of the leaders in providing registry and clearinghouse services in telecommunications and Internet networks in North America using modern technology and innovative solutions.

Structure

The .us TLD's structure id locally-based modeled on the United States Geography. The delegated managers also known as "delegees" or "locality delegees" supervise the operations of the locality space of majority of the usTLD.

Management Framework for us TLD

The Department of Commerce and Neustar has been successful in managing and developing the usTLD because of their continuous development and implementation of unique policies and procedures to support a more certain, reliable and robust DNS. Neustar worked hand in hand with the agency in creating the us TLD management framework of us TLd based on four primary segments which include (1) legacy hierarchical locality space (2) expanded second-level space(3) kids.us and (4) reserved names.