.ax is the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It ...

(

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It ...

) of Åland,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Exper ...

, introduced in 2006. Previously, most Åland websites were under the .aland.fi

subdomain In the Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnect ...

History

On February 17, 2006, the Finnish parliament approved a modification of the laws regulating Finnish domain names to include the .ax top-level domain. During a three-year period, the aland.fi subdomain was phased out while .ax was used in parallel; no new registrations under the aland.fi subdomain were to be accepted, and all owners of domains under the aland.fi subdomain would receive registrations for the corresponding .ax domain. On March 17, 2006, Finnish president

Tarja Halonen Tarja Kaarina Halonen (; born 24 December 1943) is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organis ...

signed the bill into law, effective as of March 27, 2006. The government of Åland began accepting registrations immediately following the changing of the law. On June 9, 2006,

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespac ...

approved delegating the .ax top-level domain to the government of Åland. The .ax domain was added to the root zone on June 21, 2006, and became active on August 15, 2006.Ansökan om domännamn
The government of Åland's domain registration website The code ax itself comes from the

ISO 3166 ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the n ...

standard, and was assigned to Åland in 2004. The letter X is not included in any major or locally used language, but other possible codes were already taken, e.g. .al by

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

, .ad by

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin Latin (, or , ) ...

, and .an by what was at the time the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William Town, italic=yes) is the capit ...

. Since September 5, 2016, anyone worldwide is permitted to register domain names under the .ax TLD.

References

*
Adopted Resolutions
special meeting of the board of

External links

IANA .ax whois information

.ax domain whois
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ax Communications in Åland Mass media in Åland Country code top-level domains Communications in Finland