Easier internet domain registration

Changes to the way the national internet domain is administered will make web addresses ending in .ae easier to obtain. Until recently, registering a website under the UAE top-level domain (TLD) was a cumbersome, largely manual process, involving multiple passport photocopies and trips to the local Etisalat office. This stood in contrast to the near-instant online registration of websites in domains such as the US-administered .com, or .tv, which has become a national revenue source for the Pacific island of Tuvalu.

The process in the UAE was slower because there were just a handful of retailers, known as registrars, authorised to issue web addresses linked to the national TLD. That changes now that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has created .ae Domain Administration (aeDA) to licence international website retailers, meaning they can begin to offer .ae web addresses alongside more popular domains like .org and .fm.

Mohamed al Ghanim, the chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), said a new system would "promote the use and utility of the .ae domain name". Nadya al Jassmi, the registrar liaison manager of aeDA, said the new system "signifies the administration's move to embark on an initiative to promote the widespread usage of the .ae branding on a global scale". According to figures published by Xavier Media, an online company targeting web professionals, .ae is home to just 6.5 million web pages, below Moldova (.md, 7.3 million) and Western Samoa (.ws, 24 million).

But despite being number 65 on Xavier's list of the top 90 TLD's, registrars see potential in the .ae location. Instra Corporation, an Australian registrar, said it would sell .ae to its clients as a key location for the growing Middle Eastern electronic commerce market. "The UAE is in the perfect logical position for businesses to expand in Middle East, given its strategic location," said Tony Lentino, the chief executive of Instra.

It was unclear yesterday, however, if the aeDA system has been fully automated. Websites in the .ae domain could be booked on Instra's website yesterday, but an attempt to register such a site ended in the registration listed as "pending". Instra does warn customers that some national registries still work on old systems where manual faxing of documents is required. The aeDA administration referred all media enquiries to the TRA, which did not respond to requests for clarification.

While enabling a wider range of international registrars to sell space under the .ae domain should result in more websites being registered, the upcoming liberalisation of the entire TLD system could trim overall demand for country-level web addresses. In June, the internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the governing body that oversees the allocation of internet addresses, announced the most significant changes in the addressing system since the beginning of the world wide web more than 20 years ago.

The most significant change was the relaxing of regulations regarding the creation of new TLDs. Previously only available to sovereign nations and a handful of international bodies, individuals and businesses will be able to register their own TLD by the end of the year, bypassing country domains like .ae altogether. @Email:tgara@thenational.ae