etisalat to hand over .ae domain

Dubai: etisalat will hand over control of the .ae domain name to the government in the second quarter of this year, according to the nation's telecom regulator.

In a long-expected move, the two-year old Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is preparing to assume control of the nation's websites that are managed by the telecom operator, many which predate the TRA's founding.

By ceding control of its web registry business, etisalat will potentially lose out on millions in revenues in addition to the lustre of being the telecom operator entrusted with managing the nation's websites.The financial loss may barely register for the company, however, which earned Dh12.8 billion in 2005.

Currently, more than 40,000 individuals and companies have registered their website with the .ae domain name, typically spending Dh150 to register and host their site for a year.

"etisalat took the responsibility to manage it and did quite a good job," said Mohammad Gheyath, manager for technical affairs at the TRA. "But after the TRA's introduction in 2005, it was decided that we would manage the domain name."

The TRA first announced details of the project at the Gitex exhibition in November last year. Since then, the government agency has been developing a plan to manage the web registry and expand the country's presence in cyberspace.

"Our plan is to improve the number of registrations and ensure the customer has easy access to register their domain name electronically and remotely," Gheyath said.

The TRA intends to make the registration criteria simpler while at the same time providing ways for web surfers to be assured that .ae-registered businesses are actually located here, he added.

New changes could include revamping the website naming system to mirror that of the ".co.uk" web suffix in Britain, for companies able to prove their local status.

Current owners should see little change in their service, Gheyath said, although he acknowledged some website owners may be required to re-register.

The new unit of the TRA has been studying examples from around the world and will ramp up to a staff of roughly a dozen by the time of the transfer sometime this spring.

With the change, Gheyath said he hoped to foster the growth of local businesses doing business online. "I see great potential in the internet here as businesses use it more and more for e-commerce," he said.