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    • .ad

    Country-code top-level domainsIDNDNSSEC

    Overview

    • .ad is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Andorra.
    • Introduced on 9 January 1996 and administered by Andorra Telecom (Nic.ad / domini.ad).
    • Names are registered at the second level and the TLD is intended for entities connected with Andorra.

    History

    • 9 January 1996: .ad was introduced as Andorra's ccTLD.
    • Historically, registrations required pre-approval and were limited to Andorran registrants or trademark holders.
    • 2024 policy relaunch and changes:
      • Since 22 May 2024: the registry requires use of an accredited registrar; direct sales from the registry were discontinued.
      • Since 22 October 2024: registration policies permit any natural or legal person worldwide to register .ad domains; prior validation was removed and registrations are processed immediately. Registrars outside Andorra may accredit themselves.

    Usage and Audience

    • Primary audience: organisations, businesses and individuals connected with Andorra.
    • Domain-hack use: because ".ad" abbreviates "advertisement/advert", the TLD has been used by advertising media and for marketing-related domain hacks.

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility:
      • As of 22 October 2024: any natural or legal person worldwide may register .ad domains.
      • Prior to 2024 policy changes, registrations were restricted to Andorran registrants or trademark holders and required prior approval.
    • Registrar requirements:
      • Registrations must be made through an accredited registrar since 22 May 2024.
    • Prohibited uses and restrictions (selected):
      • Offering third-level domain registrations to independent third parties for commercial purposes.
      • Sending unsolicited commercial advertising in violation of law or acceptable-use policies.
      • Registering multiple domains solely to create parking pages with ads or to redirect traffic.
      • Distributing malware or contributing to botnets or other abusive uses.
      • Engaging in identity theft (phishing) or impersonation.
      • Trafficking domain names for sale/resale or facilitating third-party trafficking.
      • Using a .ad domain in a manner that could damage or tarnish the name, image or reputation of Andorra, or content deemed defamatory, violent, racist or otherwise contrary to law or morality at the registry's discretion.
      • Infringing third-party intellectual property rights.
    • Allowed characters and syntax rules:
      • Allowed: Catalan-specific characters (à, ç, è, é, í, ï, l·l, ò, ó, ú, ü), Latin letters, digits 0–9, hyphen "-", and characters included in the IANA IDN table.
      • Not permitted to begin or end with a hyphen.
      • Not permitted to have two consecutive hyphens "--" in the third and fourth positions unless they are valid IDN encodings per IANA rules.
      • Maximum length: 63 characters.
      • As of July 2024, 1- and 2-character domain names are reserved by the registry but may be made available later.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • Branding: the .ad extension can be effective for advertising- and marketing-related brands due to the natural abbreviation of "ad" or "advert".
    • No specific information about search-engine ranking differences is provided in the source material; use-case and trust will depend on content, registrar reputation, and proper compliance with registry rules.

    Operator

    Andorra Telecom

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       AD

organisation: Andorra Telecom
address:      Carrer Mossèn Lluís Pujol, 8-14
address:      Santa Coloma AD500
address:      Andorra

contact:      administrative
name:         Joan-Marc Lauga Courtil
organisation: Andorra Telecom
address:      Carrer Mossèn Lluís Pujol, 8-14
address:      Santa Coloma AD500
address:      Andorra
phone:        +376 875274
fax-no:       +376 863667
e-mail:       joan-marc.lauga@andorratelecom.ad

contact:      technical
name:         Fabrici Rossell
organisation: Andorra Telecom
address:      Carrer Mossèn Lluís Pujol, 8-14
address:      Santa Coloma AD500
address:      Andorra
phone:        +376 875481
fax-no:       +376 725001
e-mail:       fabrici.rossell@andorratelecom.ad

nserver:      AD.NS.NIC.ES 194.69.254.15 2001:67c:21cc:2000:0:0:64:47
nserver:      ANYCAST23.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.65.11 2a01:5b0:5:0:0:0:0:b
nserver:      ANYCAST9.IRONDNS.NET 195.253.64.11 2a01:5b0:4:0:0:0:0:b
nserver:      NS3.NIC.FR 192.134.0.49 2001:660:3006:1:0:0:1:1
ds-rdata:     6062 8 2 3c07a798097f38d173d98194f436a2ed29443ecc1da0d9f8da8abfa29348d6ce

whois:        whois.nic.ad

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://www.domini.ad

created:      1996-01-09
changed:      2024-09-16
source:       IANA

    Registrars