The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has officially notified the operator of the .su domain of its plans to phase out the domain over the next five years. According to Domain Name Wire, a formal letter was sent to the domain’s administrator on February 6.
Currently, the .su domain is managed by the Russian Research Institute for Public Networks (RosNIIROS) and hosts approximately 100,000 active registrations. Despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago, the domain has remained available for new registrations. However, ICANN, in accordance with its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) management policy adopted in 2022, has now initiated the process of decommissioning .su.
Under ICANN regulations, domains associated with countries that have been removed from the ISO 3166-1 standard are subject to a phased retirement process. This process typically spans five years, although domain operators may request an extension for an additional five years. In the case of .su, its decommissioning had been postponed for decades due to the absence of an official ICANN mechanism for retiring such domains. Now, three years after the policy’s approval, ICANN is moving forward with its implementation.
According to the letter from PTI, the division overseeing IANA operations, a formal announcement regarding the domain’s retirement was scheduled for publication on February 13. However, as of now, it has not been made public. Should the process officially commence, the .su domain will cease to exist by 2030 unless the operator succeeds in securing an extension or prompting a policy revision. While the letter acknowledges the possibility of reconsidering the regulations, any such amendments would require approval from the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), the body responsible for ccTLD policies.
The decision regarding .su could set a precedent for other domains facing similar circumstances. Notably, the United Kingdom is considering transferring administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius. If this transition occurs, the country code IO could be removed from ISO 3166-1, potentially jeopardizing the existence of the widely used .io domain.
As ICANN moves forward with its first-ever implementation of a mechanism to retire obsolete domains, the question remains whether negotiations among stakeholders could influence the process and extend the lifespan of .su.
