Newsbytes schrijft dat het .pro top-level domein in het begin van 2002 gerealiseerd zal worden. Shonna Keeogan van Register.com heeft gezegd dat men verwacht dat het contract in de aankomende weken zal worden afgemaakt. Het .pro-domein is één van de zeven nieuwe internet domeinnamen welke is goedgekeurd door de Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in november 2002. Dit domein is de enige die nog niet gerealiseerd is:
ICANN has inked registry contracts with the operators of .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum and .name. When .info went live earlier this year, it became the first new generic top-level domain added to the Internet's central Domain Name System (DNS) since the advent of .com, .net and .org, more than a decade ago.
When ICANN started the process of finalizing contracts for the domains that it approved in November, the body began by negotiating deals with the operators of the two relatively unrestricted domains - .info and .biz - and moving down the list toward the domains that catered to the more exclusive niche markets - .museum, .aero and .pro.
But although .pro - which will be reserved exclusively for credential-bearing accountants, lawyers and physicians - is a broader domain than .museum, .pro remains the only one of the seven without a completed contract.