Monthly Archive for October, 2009

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Dubai Leads as .ae Domain Name Registrations Rise by 30% in UAE

The Telecommunication Regulation Authority (TRA) told Emirates Business it had witnessed growth this year mainly because of the new policy framework and a non monopolistic environment among registrars.

“In the period [August 2008 to August 2009], the number of new registrations increased by 30% compared to the corresponding period the year before. There are more registrars [no monopoly] providing .ae domain name registration. Customers have the choice to select their registrar as competition leads to better service. The registration process brought online has also made it easier,” said TRA.

In fact, during the second quarter in 2009, country code TLDs (ccTLDs) globally rose by 14% year over year to 74.4 million domain names.

This represents an increase of 1% from the first quarter, according to the Q2 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, the provider of internet infrastructure services.

Kamal Nasser, CEO of Conservus International, based in Dubai, said: “It’s the only way forward. However, unfortunately e commerce sites are practically non existent in the region although statistics show more than $1 billion was spent on e commerce in Saudi Arabia through purchase of goods from American and European sites.”

“Companies in the UAE must register considering it part of their identity,” said Nasser.

Yugoslavia Domain Name Disappears

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has replaced the .yu country code top level domain from the Internet for Yugoslavia.

The .yu domain, which was scheduled to be turned off by ICANN on Sept. 30, was replaced most recently by .rs for Serbia and .me for Montenegro.

Unfortunately, ICANN has not issued a country code top level domain for Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. Yugoslavia was dissolved in 2003 and was replaced by Serbia and Montenegro, both of which became separately independent in 2006.

It was estimated that as many as 4000 websites had not transitioned from the .yu domain name.

Marcaria.com provides domain registration in Serbia (.rs) and Montenegro (.me) , and other European countries.