The internet is changing from .com to .anythinggoes, and Australia is not to be left behind.

The cities of Melbourne and Sydney are applying for eligibility to operate generic top level domains (gTLD), otherwise known as internet suffixes or extensions. The Victorian state is also applying, but the government of New South Wales is reportedly still mulling the implications of such a move.

Once approved by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), Aussies will be able to register their business with a city or state name suffix, such as brandname.sydney or brandname.victoria in addition to, or in replacement of their .com internet address.

.Melbourne, .Sydney, and .Victoria are referred to as TLD "strings" being proposed to ICANN, a non-profit corporation that oversees internet domain names, among other tasks.

The basic application fee for each TLD string is $185,000. This excludes post-application processes, such as string contention and response to objections, among other extra steps towards the granting of operation rights.

ARI Registry Services (formerly AusRegistry International) has won the contract to provide the technical infrastructure for the three TLDs, after the two states' request for proposal (RFP) closed in November last year.

ARI has previously signed with StarHub and the Australian Football League for the same services.

ICANN has taken at least six years of preparation for what it calls an "internet expansion" from the current number of 21 TLDs, including .com, .asia, and .org to as many as hundreds depending on the result of the ongoing application process with ICANN.

Speaking at the 2011 Global Leaders Summit in Dubai, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said the new gTLD program will encourage innovation, expand consumer choice, and expand online presence on the internet.

Many are opposed to the new gTLD program, with the New York Times saying "a plethora of new suffixes is just as likely to cause confusion for consumers and enable malefactors to use the new arenas for deception. Icann expects 500 to 1,000 applications in (its) 90-day application window. Before it approves any of them, it needs to slow down and put in place better safeguards against consumer fraud."

The application window for new gTLD opened on January 12. As of February 14, ICANN has received at least a hundred registrations in its application website, with the first step being a $5,000 deposit before an application is officially acknowledged.

Other known string applicants are .music, .nyc, .mls and .london.

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