Dubai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) has set its sights on making the UAE's .ae domain name one of the most easily identifiable in the world.

The TRA intends to register 20,000 domain names under the .ae realm by the end of this year to add to the 90,000 domain names currently registered there, officials said.

Over the next five years, the TRA plans to get enough additional names registered under the .ae domain to make it one of the most recognised virtual territories.

Top spot

The .com domain currently occupies the top spot with 80 million registered users while Germany's national domain .de ranks second with about 10 million users.

Mohammad Gheyath, executive director of Technology Development Affairs, told reporters yesterday that while similar numbers would be unrealistic for the UAE given the size of its population and economy, a long-term plan would be worked out to put .ae among the top 20 global domain names within 10 years.

"With the world's most common domain name, .com, saturated, users will have a high possibility of obtaining the name that they want for a website or email under the .ae domain name," said Gheyath.

In the short term, the authority intends to make .ae the preferred address for internet users in the UAE.

During August 2009, there was a 30 per cent increase in the number of domain names registered, compared to the same period the year before.

"Despite the economic conditions, domain names registered by individuals and companies picked up. This is a good achievement," Gheyath said.

Mentioning the benefits of registering under the UAE's domain name, Gheyath said that the authority ensures that the entity registered is legitimate, bringing with it a level of trust with the .ae name for customers.

The authority also ensures that names under trademark, copyright and registered company names are not infringed upon.

"We give the assurance that a company registered under .ae exists and that it is legitimate," he said, outlining the security checks that occur before an entity is registered.

While the authority plans to increase the registered names under the country domain name, it said that it is not a compulsion and non-.ae users would not be penalised.

During the GITEX technology week that begins next week, the TRA will launch domain names in Arabic under the .ae domain, Mohammad Al Zarouni, chief technology officer at .ae Domain Administration of the TRA told Gulf News.

Arabic URL

Last year, the authority said that it was in the final phases of approval from the international body, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a worldwide organisation, responsible for internet management globally.

Gheyath said the initiative would be the first of its kind in the Middle East, but since Arabic would not be assigned by the international body outside the region, the UAE would also be the first country to offer the complete URL (uniform resource locator) in Arabic.