Alley URL registration and hosting firm Register.com has struck a deal to oversee the technical management of two country code domains -- .AG and .SC - which will be made available to the general public in the fall.

Marking its official entry into the domain registry space, Register.com said it's Registry Advantage outsourced service would power the roll out of the .AG and .SC country codes, which creates alternatives to the .COM, .NET and .ORG domains.

Registry Advantage is being touted as a full-service domain registry technology that allows registries of all sizes to use the infrastructure.

The powering of registrations and other DNS services for the .AG and .SC domains come from Nic AG and 6th Dimension, the company's first clients for the Registry Advantage service.

Plans are in place to target the German market to sell the .AG extension. In Germany, .AG is the equivalent of "Inc." or "Corp." in the U.S and with Germany being among the top domain buying countries in the world, the plan is to aggressively market the country code for the Caribbean island there.

Nic AG operates the .AG top-level domain for Antigua and 6th Dimension is the marketing agent of the .SC registry, the top-level domain for the Seychelles.

It is not the first time a country code is being marketed as a top-level domain. The country Tuvalu has sold the rights to the .TV extension and Colombia recently attracted bids to manage the .CO domain.

Register.com chief technical officer Rob Gardos said Registry Advantage would collect an undisclosed cut of transactions processed through its service.

"We're actually running a full service outsourced solution for other registries. Everything needed to run a registry will be available...the back-end infrastructure, software and customer support. That's what we're offering to the registries," Gardos told atNewYork.

The move to launch Registry Advantage comes as the Manhattan-based firm is looking to find revenue streams away from the TLD registry and DNS services offered through traditional Register.com channels.

"This positions us as an infrastructure player. Registries can use the services to offer real-time domain name resolution, advanced Whois capabilities, 24-hour customer support, and online client management applications."

Gardos said the infrastructure was designed to support millions of transactions daily.

Register.com plans to accept live registrations of .AG and .SC domain names this quarter.