two letter .co.uk .org etc domains

how can a company manage to buy one?

[proper_bo]

Im not exactly sure of the rules so I won't post the companies name or the URL on this forum.

A British company managed to buy a two character .co.uk website. They did this I assume because one of the characters is a number. I assume you all know which company I'm talking about. How does the average Joe go about registering say Z3.co.uk (a fictional site) or is it completely impossible and the company in question was allowed due to its size and friends (nudge nudge wink wink)?

I have searched everywhere for an explanation but it tends to be tough when it involves a website URL.

Thank you in advance.

[py9jmas]

From Nominet's rules on domain names:

[nominet.org.uk...]

5.6 For the SLDs co.uk, me.uk, org.uk, and net.uk, a Third Level Domain may not consist of only two letters. For example, an application to register ie.co.uk, -a.co.uk or e-.co.uk would be rejected. For the avoidance of doubt Third Level Domains containing a letter and a number or two numbers are permitted thus 2a.co.uk, a2.co.uk, or 22.co.uk are acceptable.

HTH,

Jon

[rconway]

There are a few two-letter .co.uk domains that are still in existence from the pre-Nominet days.

Examaples include bt.co.uk and eb.co.uk

It is no longer possible to register these types of domains though.

[max_rk]

As most of the better names, two character names got resisted well before 1997. Before Nominet was created even few two letter domains were registered. That includes bt.co.uk, jj.co.uk and few other. Amazingly one character name was registered as well. It was x.co.uk, later deleted.

These days, there is only one way to get 2 character name and that is acquisition. I know few people who have few names like that. If you interested send me snail mail.

Max.rk