British Indian Ocean Territory

It's been a while, and there's a lingering misconception that .io domains are for startups. However, they are actually:

Country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the British Indian Ocean Territory. Originally intended for entities connected to the territory, now widely used globally, particularly in the tech and innovation sectors.

There's some news:

"The Disappearance of an Internet Domain" (https://every.to/p/the-disappearance-of-an-internet-domain)

Something good, still alarming:

"The .io domain isn't going anywhere anytime soon amid treaty" (https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/io_domain_uk_mauritius/)

Just be careful when you purchase another .io domain.

https://every.to/p/the-disappearance-of-an-internet-domain

Since 1968, the UK and U.S have operated a major military base on the Chagos Islands (officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory) , but the neighboring nation of Mauritius has always disputed British sovereignty over them. The Mauritian government has long argued that the British illegally retained control when Mauritius gained independence. It has taken over 50 years, but that dispute has finally been resolved. In return for a 99-year lease for the military base, the islands will become part of Mauritius.

Once this treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. Various international bodies will update their records. In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain. It will also automatically begin the process of retiring existing ones.