The Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names (RNIDS) announced recently that it would begin testing of the 24 local companies who applied to perform registrar services for .rs domains. The testing was scheduled to commence on December 10 and conclude on December 20.

It has also been announced the process of entering .RS domains into the central registry of RNIDS and the process of transition from .YU to .RS domains have not been yet officially opened. It is expected that by early-January, RNIDS will announce a process for moving from .YU to .RS as well as a process for registering domain names in the new ccTLD.

Once the process for registering domain names is announced, RNIDS will announce this to the public and all accredited registrars will be able to offer . RS domain names at the same time. Until then, clients can apply for registering desired .RS domains with accredited registrars but their requests will be sent for registration with RNIDS on the date when the register of .rs domains initiates its operations, which is expected after the first half of January 2008.

Ten days before the beginning of .RS domain registration, RNIDS will stop receiving requests for registering new .YU domains. All .YU domains, which have been registered until then, will continue to function normally at least until 30th September 2009.

Once the registration of .RS domains begins, current owners of .YU domains will have a priority in the first six months to register the same .RS domain name. All domain names which have not been registered until now with .YU extension will be immediately available for registration with .RS extension. Registrants will submit their registration requests through accredited registrars. A list of all accredited registrars of .RS domains, as well as more detailed rules regarding the registration procedure and transition from .YU to .RS domains can be seen on rnids.rs. RNIDS will inform the public on time about dates determined for the end of registering new .YU domains and the beginning of registering .RS domains, as well as other significant deadlines.

More information is available from RNIDS’s website at rnids.rs