Check this out... NEWS about Business.co.uk straight from the horse's mouth.
Business.co.uk shows SUSPENDED. Fine. According to NIC.UK, printed publically on their website as part of their Policy, their Terms of Service, they say that a unrenewd domain will be Suspended for 60 days, at which point the domain will be retunred to the Public Pool.
Fast Forward 101 days and counting... Business.co.uk is STILL suspended.
Many have speculated that it is simply NIC.UK pulling a ENOM and scraping off PPC revenues for as long as they can. Others suspect something more sinister.
I got tired of all the speculation and decided to get some answers. I wrote NIC.UK about this Buisness.co.uk business... I pointed out that according to their own policy, the domains are to become available after 60 days of suspension and this domain is WAY beyond the term.
Here is the reply of NIC.UK Registrant Advisor, Philip Sardar:
Thank you for your e-mail
When a domain is SUSPENDED. it means it is currently registered however is blocked so the current registrant is unable to use the domain. Suspended domain names are NOT available to register.
With regards to 'business.co.uk', we are currently in talks with the current registrants. Depending on the out come of these talks, the domains will be cancelled or the suspension lifted accordingly.
Unfortunately we are unable to give you any time scales.
If you have any further questions please let me know.
Kind Regards
Philip Sardar
Registrant Advisor
So what Special Status do you need to be allowed a continued discussion about renewing a domain you let expire? If it were any one of us, "SOL buddy!"
So it appears that NIC.UK negotiating for itself a heapin' helpin of the Green stuff? Ransoming back the domain to the previous owners? That would be sizably MORE than a new hand reg fee, which is their alternative if it goes back to the public pool.
In the final analysys, NIC.UK is either:
Breaking their own policy in order to turn a profit. (and there are MORE .co.uk domains in this endless loop as well)
or
Not being honest about what is going on.
Either way, that is the latest.
GoPC