.ph is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Philippines. The official domain registry of the .ph domain is dotPH Domains Inc. dotPH holds and maintains the database of PH domain names, specifically .ph, .com.ph, .net.ph, and .org.ph. Its domain name registrars are not only individuals, businesses, and organizations in the Philippines, but also those in other parts of the world. The PH domain is currently administered by José Emmanuel "Joel" Disini, who is also dotPH's current CEO. Disini has been the domain administrator since Jon Postel assigned him the domain in 1990. The domain is sponsored by the PH Domain Foundation, a social outreach arm of dotPH which was also founded by Disini together with a group of IT professionals in August 1999. In 1994, the administration of the .gov.ph domain was sub-delegated to the Government of the Philippines. In like manner, .edu.ph was sub-delegated to the Philippine Network Foundation, Inc. (PHNET). Aside from being the registry, dotPH sells domains and web-related services such as web hosting, co-location, private registration and e-mail forwarding. dotPH also offers a free referral service which connects Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises with a network of over 300 accredited professional Filipino web designers. It formerly offered a free blogging service through .i.ph domains. History Birth of the .ph registry In 1989, Joel Disini founded the Email Company (EMC), one of the earliest Internet service providers in the Philippines. At that time most networks (including EMC) were connected to the Internet via UUCP. Disini's network had a UUCP connection to UUNET. This network connection, along with Disini's credentials as a Computer Science and Electrical Engineering graduate of Caltech and five-year experience in Macintosh Networking & Communications software development in Cupertino, California, became Jon Postel's basis for delegating the .ph domain to him. The .ph country code top-level domain was officially delegated on September 14, 1990. Since then, .ph domains have been commercially available to the public. In 1994, the PHNET wide-area network, a project funded by DOST, completed its development and was able to connect the Philippines to the rest of the world by establishing TCP/IP connections to the U.S. using 64 kbit/s international leased lines. At this point, the PHNET Foundation wanted to take over the administration of the .ph domain registry. Protracted negotiations took place, and eventually the responsibility of administrating the .edu.ph and .gov.ph domains were transferred to the PHNET Foundation