AusRegistry International has today announced that it has been selected by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates to provide expert assistance and advice in support of the implementation of the Arabic ??????. (.emarat) Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

AusRegistry International CEO, Adrian Kinderis said, “I am delighted that we will continue to build on our excellent relationship with the TRA with the .emarat project. The AusRegistry International team has built considerable capability in all aspects of IDNs and we are excited to be playing a part in the introduction of such an important milestone for the UAE—to be enabling the use of Arabic Domain Names in the UAE and by being one of the first IDN ccTLDs to be launched.”

Mohammed Gheyath, Executive Director of the TRA said, “AusRegistry International has played a critical role in the success we have achieved in developing the .ae ccTLD to be one of the leading ccTLDs in the region, and we look forward to their assistance in replicating that success with the .emarat IDN ccTLD.”

The TRA applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global body responsible for Domain Names, for the .emarat IDN ccTLD in November 2009 as part of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track program. The IDN ccTLD Fast Track program was created by ICANN to allow organisations representing countries that use non-Latin scripts to apply for their full country name, an abbreviation or other representation of their country name using their native script. The implementation of IDN ccTLDs represents an historic step forward in terms of inclusiveness for those countries that use non-Latin scripts and will be a crucial milestone towards the bridging of the digital divide in these countries.

“This opportunity highlights AusRegistry International’s continued interest in the Middle East region and efforts to further promote the use of native languages on the Internet.” Kinderis said, “We look forward to working with other countries as they look to secure and roll out their IDN”.

AusRegistry International and the TRA have enjoyed a strong relationship over a number of years, beginning in 2006 when AusRegistry International was engaged to provide consultancy services in relation to the review of the framework, governance and administration of the .ae ccTLD. In 2008, the .ae ccTLD was relaunched using AusRegistry International’s industry-leading Domain Name Registry Software, and in 2009 this was upgraded to include full support for the IDNA2008 standard for IDNs. The AusRegistry International Domain Name Registry Software will be used for the Registry System for the .emarat IDN ccTLD.

To date, 15 strings, representing 12 countries and involving seven different scripts have passed the ICANN’s evaluation phase, and are therefore able to apply to have these strings delegated as IDN ccTLDs. It is possible that the first of these IDN ccTLDs may be delegated by the end of this month, if approved by the ICANN Board at their next meeting on the 22nd April.

Countries interested in securing their IDN ccTLD should contact AusRegistry International for further information and support.