.ph
Encyclopedia
Introduction
The official domain registry of the .ph domain is dotPH Domains Inc. dotPH holds and maintains the database of PH domain names, specifically .ph, .com.ph, .net.ph, .org.ph, and .i.ph. Its domain name registrarDomain name registrar
A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by both ICANN and generic top-level domain registry to sell gTLDs and/or by a country code top-level domain registry to sell ccTLDs; to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of...
s are not only individuals, businesses and organizations in the Philippines, but also those in other parts of the world.
The PH domain is currently administered by Jose Emmanuel "Joel" Disini, who is also dotPH's current CEO. Disini has been the domain administrator since Jon Postel
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
assigned him the domain in 1990. The domain is sponsored by the PH Domain Foundation, a social outreach arm of dotPH which was also founded by Disini together with a group of IT professionals in August 1999.
In 1994, the administration of the .gov.ph domain was sub-delegated to the Philippine government. In like manner, .edu.ph was sub-delegated to the Philippine Network Foundation, Inc. (PHNET).
Aside for being the registry, dotPH also sells domains and web-related services such as web hosting and web design. It also offers free blogging services through .i.ph domains.
Second-level domains
Managed by dotPH- .com.ph — Businesses/commercial entities
- .net.ph — Internet-oriented organizations
- .org.ph — Non-commercial organizations
- .i.ph — Domains for individuals
Managed by DOST - ASTI
- .gov.ph — Government agencies
- .mil.ph — Philippine military
Managed by PHNET
- .edu.ph — Educational institutions
The Birth of the .ph Registry
In 1989, Joel Disini founded the Email Company (EMC), one of the earliest Internet service providers in the Philippines. At that time most networks (including EMC) were connected to the Internet via uucpUUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
. Disini's network had a uucp connection to UUNET
UUNET
UUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...
. This network connection, along with Disini's five-year experience in Macintosh Networking & Communications software development at Cupertino, California, became Jon Postel's basis for delegating the .ph domain to him. The .ph country code top level domain was officially delegated on September 14, 1990. Since then, .ph domains became commercially available to EMC customers.
The Splitting of .ph Domain Administration
In 1994, the PHNET wide-area network, a project funded by DOST, completed its development and was able to connect the Philippines to the rest of the world by establishing TCP/IP connections to the U.S. using 64 kbit/s international leased lines.At this point, the PHNET Foundation wanted to assume responsibility to run the .ph domain registry. So they made negotiations with Disini, but they failed. Negotiations persisted, and eventually Disini gave in to the pressure and transferred the administration of .gov.ph and .edu.ph to PHNET Foundation. Later on PHNET Foundation would pass the administration of .gov.ph to DOST.
At that time domain fees ranged from Php 450 to Php 1,350. Domains registered during this period had no expiration and therefore had no renewal rates, thus the label lifetime domains. However, a fee was charged for modifications to these domains. Lifetme domains were non-transferable, and were only valid for the lifetime of the original Registrant.
The PH Domain Foundation and dotPH
In August 1999 Disini and the technical people at EMC formed the PH Domain Foundation. It sought to promote the Internet and free unlimited email services in rural areas. It also took charge of the domain selling business and the management of the .ph domain registry.On October 1, 1999, the PH Domain Foundation launched a fully automated online system for domain registration. It also launched a flat .ph domain space, enabling people to register domains like "domainname.ph". Lifetime domain registration was halted, and all domains registered subsequently carried expiration dates. Domain owners now had to renew their domains for a fee to extend their lifetime.
At around this period, the "for-profit" business and technical side of the PH Domain Foundation became identified as dotPH. Activities related to domains and the business were now attributed to dotPH, such as the resolution on the dispute between Yahoo! Philippines and another Philippine company, the launching of the automated online registration system, and even the administration of the .ph domain registry itself. To this day, dotPH maintains itself as the official domain registry of the Philippines.
In 2000, dotPH developed a system called the Shared Registry System (SRS) which enabled domain name registrar
Domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by both ICANN and generic top-level domain registry to sell gTLDs and/or by a country code top-level domain registry to sell ccTLDs; to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of...
s and ISP's to manage domains and accept registrations on their own site by connecting to the dotPH registry backend. This is done by downloading and installing on their server a module that does the actual communication with the registry backend using an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based protocol.
dotPH also became one of the first Philippine sites to accept online credit card payments.
General Policies for registering PH domain names
(These are for .ph, .com.ph, .net.ph, .org.ph, and .i.ph domain names. For .edu.ph policies, see http://services.ph.net/dns/policies/generalpolicy/generalpolicy.html and for .mil.ph and .gov.ph policies, see http://www.asti.dost.gov.ph )- .PH Domain Names are registered on a first-paid, first-served basis.
- There are no local residency requirements for registering a .PH domain. With the exception of .mil.ph, .gov.ph, and .edu.ph domains, anyone may register any available .PH domain.
- .PH domain names must have at least 3 characters. One and 2 character domain names are not allowed for registration.
- As few as three and as many as 63 characters (not including .PH) are permitted. Because some mail programs do not accept more than 26 characters in a combined TLD and second level domain name, names with more than 23 characters for the second level domain (plus .PH = 26). Names may not begin or end with a dash, and upper case and lower case are treated as lower case only. Besides the - character, only alphanumeric characters a-z, 0-9 are accepted. Spaces and any other characters in a name will not be accepted. Names with only numeric characters and names with spaces will not be accepted for registration.
- Domains registered prior to October 1, 1999 are known as 'Lifetime domains' and are not subject to renewal fees. They should, however, be able to send/receive email. Specifically, the Registry should be able to send mail to postmaster@domain.com.ph and receive a reply other than a bounce. Otherwise, the domain shall be forfeited due to non-activation/non-use. If a lifetime domain, however, files to transform into an annual (regular) domain, the postmaster rule shall no longer be in effect.
- Lifetime domains cannot be modified online, and a fee must be paid for manual modification.
- The registrant may choose to convert a lifetime domain to regular status. Once converted, the registration/renewal fee is paid every 2 years. All subsequent Registrant modifications will be free and can be done 24/7 via the online Control Panel.
Terms of Service
All Domain Names are serviced for limited periods. Specifically, Nameholders may choose to register a domain for the following time periods:- two (2) years or;
- five (5) years or;
- ten (10) years.
In the absence of any successful legal challenge, the Nameholder has the right of first refusal to renew the service of Nameholder's Domain Name. This right expires on the last day of the initial term or then existing term of service for which dotPH has received payment.
Nameholder agrees that the Service Agreement shall be governed in all respects by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Philippines. By submitting a domain name for registration, Nameholder consents to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the appropriate court in Pasig City, Philippines. The Nameholder further agrees to abide by DotPH's Policies, especially it's Dispute Resolution Policy, patterned after ICANN's UDRP
Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names...
.
Persons wishing to apply for the Domain Name Service of dotPH Inc. ("dotPH") need only register online at www.dot.ph and submit their contact information. There are no other requirements.
Other Developments
In 2001 several complaints against dotPH were formally filed by members of PhilDAC with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). One complaint was formally withdrawn, and the rest were eventually dismissed with prejudice for reasons including "failure to prosecute" and "lack of interest".After studies made by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in 2002, the Philippine Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Commissioner, Ver Pena, created an Advisory Board composed of representatives from the academe and various industry groups, including PhilDAC, to draft guidelines for the operations of the PH ccTLD. After two public hearings conducted through the NTC in 2004, the "Guidelines in the Administration of the .Ph Domain Name" was issued by the CICT in November 2004.
The administrator has publicly expressed doubts about the viability of the Guidelines, and raised questions about the manner in which the Advisory Board was appointed. In particular, that dotPH was excluded from participating in drafting the Guidelines and from the Board's subsequent deliberations; and that the Guidelines contain practically no input from dotPH representatives despite their submission of several position papers. PhilDAC, however, has responded by pointing out that the administrator was invited to participate in the two hearings but refused to do so.
Controversy
The administration of the PH ccTLD has long been criticized by some members of the Philippine DomainName Authority Convenors (PhilDAC). Members of PhilDAC have been involved in five separate attempts to redelegate and seize control of the PH domain, claiming as their basis, the need for greater transparency, accountability, and community input in the way PH Domain Policy is created.Currently Jose Emmanuel Disini is the administrator, decision maker and only registrar
Domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by both ICANN and generic top-level domain registry to sell gTLDs and/or by a country code top-level domain registry to sell ccTLDs; to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of...
of the PH domain. PhilDAC asserts Disini uses the registry for his own personal interests. Disini's claims the PH domain is better off being "policy light", rather than being policy heavy. PhilDAC replies Policy Oversight will not result in undue or burdensome requirements. Public hearings were held, instead of attending Disini sent position a position paper, PhilDAC reply is written by Horacio T. Cadiz. The CICT Guidelines call for the separation of the Registry from the Administrator. While Mr. Disini claims they have been separate as of 1999, with the PH Domain Foundation as the Administrator, and DotPH as the Registry, PhilDAC contends they are run by Mr. Disini himself or his representatives. The PH Domain Foundation website actually states that it "is the social outreach arm of the local PH Domain Registry (dotPH)."
PhilDAC says that because the Administrator and Registry are not separate, the redelegation clause of the Guidelines has become operative. Disini maintains that the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) guidelines were created under such a climate of hostility, that it is riddled with factual errors. The CICT came under fire for its involvement in the ZTE scandal
Philippine National Broadband Network controversy
The Philippine National Broadband Network controversy involved allegations of corruption in the awarding of a US$329 million construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for the proposed government-managed National Broadband Network .The contract with ZTE was signed on April 20,...
and has not revived the guidelines.