Re: Country Code TLDs

[Dave Morton <Dave.Morton@ecrc.de>]

>Hello:
>
>As a point of clarification, here is the IANA's statement about country
>code top level domain names.
>
>	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>	The codes we use are those from the ISO 3166 standard.
>
>	A country must recognised as such by the ISO (or by the UPU);
>	the code used must be the ISO-3166 code (or if there is no code
>	in the Standard, then the code used should be that which is
>	reserved in the ISO-3166 Reserved Code Elements list as a UPU
>	code).
>
>	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>The effect of the extra stuff about allowing as a TLD something that is
>both a ISO-3166 Reserved Code Element and a UPU code is to add 4
>possibilities:
>
>        AC = Ascension Island
>        GG = Guernsey
>        IM = Isle of Man
>        JE = Jersey
>
>This small extension of the rules by the IANA seemed to greatly offend
>a very few people, and seemed to be no big deal to many others.  A key
>point to keep in mind is that the IANA did not choose the codes or make
>up the list, it extended the set of allowed codes to another list
>provided by the ISO 3166 maintenance agency.
>
>--jon.

Jon,

Just something for clarification. Here is the ISO 3166 codes I found on
the RIPE NCC server.....

Country                                         A 2     A 3     Number
----------------------------------------------------------------------
AFGHANISTAN                                     AF      AFG     004
ALBANIA                                         AL      ALB     008
ALGERIA                                         DZ      DZA     012
AMERICAN SAMOA                                  AS      ASM     016
ANDORRA                                         AD      AND     020
ANGOLA                                          AO      AGO     024

rest deleted.....

Right now we use the A2 stuff - can someone tell me why we do so and why A3 
could/is not or cannot be used as perhaps part of some future country TLDs ?

Thinking here of the possibilities such as having 2 possible competing TLDs for 
each country under some future scheme of things !!!

Cheers,
Dave