What is ".lat"

.lat is a proposed Internet generic top-level domain (gTLD) for Latin American communities and users wherever they may reside.

Recently NIC México (Manager of the .mx ccTLD) along with eCOM-LAC (Federation of Latin-America and the Caribbean for the Internet and Electronic Commerce) were appointed official sponsors for this campaign. The full proposal was supposed to be presented to ICANN during 2008 but the new gTLD process in ICANN has been delayed and now it is expected to be presented by mid-2011.

There were initial communications that presented the idea of this new top-level domain as a regional one but further news detailed the community orientation of the proposal

The official gTLD name will be appointed by ICANN if the proposal is approved. Other names that are being considered are .latin and .latino. Similar proposals have already been approved like the Asian gTLD ( .asia) and the European Union's ccTLD ( .eu).