San Juan, Puerto Rico (Reuterus) - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit organization responsible for global coordination of the internet's system of unique identifiers, has announced that a new ".asia" domain will be launched in October 2007.
The move appears to be directly related to Chinese pressure on ICANN to respond faster to meet the growing needs of China. Testing on internet addresses in foreign characters (like Chinese) is expected to start by November. But according to some experts the rules for determining which addresses are established could take years.
For now, ICANN has asked the 1.3 million residents of the People's Republic of China to 'please be patient while we remodel the internet'. They hope that the Chinese will not attempt try to start their own internet while western experts work out the bugs. As an incentive, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has offered every other person their very own iPhone (basic model).
