.ph

Overview

• .ph is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Philippines.
• It was delegated on 14 September 1990 and is managed by dotPH (dotPH Domains Inc.) and sponsored by the PH Domain Foundation.
• The domain is commonly used by entities connected with the Philippines and is described as "fairly popular" in the country.
• DNSSEC is enabled for the .ph zone.

History

• Late 1980s: Joel Disini founded the Email Company (EMC), an early Philippine ISP; his credentials led Jon Postel to delegate the .ph ccTLD to him.
• 14 September 1990: .ph was officially delegated and has been commercially available since then.
• 1994: Administration of .gov.ph was sub-delegated to the Government of the Philippines; .edu.ph was sub-delegated to the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNET).
• August 1999: The PH Domain Foundation was formed (a social outreach arm associated with dotPH).
• 1 October 1999: dotPH launched an automated online registration system and introduced the flat .ph namespace (allowing second-level registrations like example.ph); lifetime domain registrations were halted and expirations/renewals introduced.
• 2000: dotPH developed a Shared Registry System (SRS) enabling registrars and ISPs to accept registrations via a registry backend module.
• dotPH adopted industry standards over time (uses EPP for registrar communications) and expanded services beyond domain names, including hosting and cloud/collaboration offerings (dotPH became a Google Cloud Partner in 2016).

Usage and Audience

• Intended use: entities connected with the Philippines.
• Typical registrants: individuals, businesses, organizations in the Philippines and registrants outside the country.
• Registration structure:
  • Registrations may be made at the second level (example.ph) or at the third level beneath category second-level domains (example.com.ph, example.net.ph, example.org.ph).
  • .edu.ph and .gov.ph are administered separately (not by dotPH).
• dotPH also provides related services such as web hosting, SSL, e-mail forwarding and registrar services.

Registration Rules

• Applicant eligibility:
  • Must be an identifiable human individual (over 18) or a legally recognized statutory entity (corporation, LLC, partnership, etc.).
• Character and format rules:
  • Length: minimum 3 characters, maximum 63 characters.
  • Allowed characters: alphanumeric (a–z, 0–9); dashes are allowed but not at the beginning or end of the name.
  • Domain names use the basic Latin alphabet without diacritics.
  • A domain name cannot be comprised solely of numbers.
• Restrictions:
  • No general restrictions for most .ph registrations, but specific subdomains (.gov.ph, .mil.ph, .edu.ph) have separate restrictions and administration.
  • dotPH enforces a zero-tolerance spam policy for hosted services; spam or mass unsolicited email can be grounds for account cancellation.
• Registrars and technical operations:
  • dotPH operates a Shared Registry System (SRS) and supports EPP for communications between registrars and the registry.
  • Registrars and registrants include entities both inside and outside the Philippines.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Longstanding administration: Joel Disini has administered the .ph domain since the original delegation in 1990.
• dotPH initiatives and milestones:
  • Introduction of flat second-level .ph registrations and an automated online registration system in 1999.
  • Development of the Shared Registry System (SRS) around 2000 and adoption of EPP.
  • dotPH reported releases and services such as a now-defunct free blogging service under .i.ph and a claimed "world's first anonymous domain" release in dotPH news.
• Disputes and policy activity: dotPH has been involved in domain dispute resolutions (for example, a reported dispute involving Yahoo! Philippines) and maintains its own dispute resolution policy.

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

domain:       PH

organisation: PH Domain Foundation
address:      27/F Jollibee Plaza
address:      F. Ortigas Ave. Ortigas Center
address:      Pasig Metro Manila 1600
address:      Philippines (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         DOTPH Administrative Contact
organisation: DotPH
address:      Room 1101, 11/F, Tai Yau Building
address:      181 Johnston Road
address:      Wanchai
address:      Hong Kong
phone:        +85258033011
e-mail:       admin@dot.ph

contact:      technical
name:         DOTPH Technical Contact
organisation: DotPH
address:      Room 1101, 11/F, Tai Yau Building
address:      181 Johnston Road
address:      Wanchai
address:      Hong Kong
phone:        +639088698750
e-mail:       sysadmin@dot.ph

nserver:      1.NS.PH 206.51.255.1 2620:171:805:ad2:7068:0:0:1
nserver:      NS2.CUHK.EDU.HK 137.189.6.21 2405:3000:3:6:0:0:0:15
nserver:      NS4.APNIC.NET 2001:dd8:12:0:0:0:0:53 202.12.31.53
nserver:      PH.COMMUNITYDNS.NET 194.0.1.23 2001:678:4:0:0:0:0:17
ds-rdata:     29122 13 2 0ed5c93074522f903dbb7fbad2866cbe7cb67f15f0e5b54013340b57c1bcd509

whois:        

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://dot.ph

created:      1990-09-14
changed:      2024-01-30
source:       IANA