South African domain registry has confirmed plans to have three of its cities including Johannesburg, Durban and Durban receive a top level domain extension.
The domains would include, .joburg, .durban and .capetown.
The registration of the domains said to cost $185,000 would accrue maintenance of about $25,000 for each.
Even though there might be other applicants for the domains for .africa, .joburg, .durban and .capetown, the The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has to go through the process to choose the most suitable manager for each of the domains.
The motivation for the registry to apply for the names was influenced by the international trend of cities seeking to brand themselves.
The ZA Central Registry will also administer the .africa domain. This will see individual users or organizations pay the registry up to $18 per year to register the .africa domain name.
There was a tussle earlier this year over had to take charge of the .africa domain originally owned by DotConnectAfrica. This saw African Union join the fray to administer the domain.
ICANN is expecting to close the application of new domain extensions by end of May this year.
