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Understanding Character Variants

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VeriSign's Character Variant Solution - Language Tag Required

In Phase III, VeriSign will require a valid language tag for an IDN registration. Phase III will impact registrations in the following manner:

• Legacy Registrations 
  Existing IDN registrations will not be impacted. Language tags will not be required for existing legacy registrations.

• New Registrations 
  In Phase III, all IDN registrations will require a valid language tag. A language tag of "no language" or "none" will not be permitted. The Registry will no longer deploy a default language tag. Registrars who cater to a single language community may choose to deploy their own default language tag. Other registrars will need to implement languages tags into their registration process flow. For new IDN registrations, VeriSign will follow the same process as in Phase II for the generation of appropriate character variants.

The language tables deployed in the VeriSign Character Variant Solution include (as of April 24, 2004):

• Chinese
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Greek
• Russian
• Belarusian
• Ukrainian
• Serbian
• Macedonian
• Bulgarian

Future Functionality

To further enhance user experience and increase the IDN opportunity for registrars, VeriSign is considering additional functionality related to character variants such as activation of blocked character variants. VeriSign will announce enhancements as they become available.

The language tables deployed in the VeriSign Character Variant Solution include 
(as of April 24, 2004):

• Chinese
• Japanese
• Polish (Only the Latin characters)
• Greek: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039,  
  U+0370 through U+03FF
• Russian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039, 
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F
• Belarusian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039, 
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F
• Ukrainian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039, 
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F
• Serbian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039, 
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F
• Macedonian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039,  
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F
• Bulgarian: Unicode Code Points U+002D, U+0030 through U+0039,  
  U+0400 through U+04FF, U+0500 through U+052F