City of Helsinki ends .helsinki; ICANN plans no new operator

The City of Helsinki is giving up .helsinki, its city top-level domain. It notified ICANN on May 28, 2026 that it intends to terminate the .helsinki Registry Agreement, which it signed on February 5, 2015. The agreement lets the operator end it for any reason with 180 calendar days’ notice. On August 19, 2026, ICANN issued a preliminary determination that .helsinki does not need to be handed to a successor operator.

Why ICANN won’t hand it on

ICANN gave two reasons in its August 19 notice:

1. .helsinki has an effective Code of Conduct Exemption.
2. Moving the domain to another operator is not needed to protect the public interest.

ICANN took comments until September 18, 2026. As of October 18, its termination page still shows only the preliminary determination for .helsinki, with no final one yet. The page notes that ICANN may still delegate a string again later through a future application process.

Other endings closing

ICANN’s termination page lists two more operator-led closures in 2026:

Ending	Operator	Notice	ICANN decision
.juniper	Juniper Networks	June 8, 2026	Final, September 15: no new operator
.xihuan	Beijing Qihu Keji	July 14, 2026	Preliminary, September 7: no new operator
.helsinki	City of Helsinki	May 28, 2026	Preliminary, August 19: no new operator

What it means if you buy domains

Not every top-level domain lasts. City and brand endings depend on one operator, and when it quits, ICANN can decide not to find a replacement. If you use an address under .helsinki or another closing ending, plan a move to a domain under an open ending such as .com or .fi, and set up redirects well before the operator’s notice period runs out.