ictQATAR's website became the first website to be available using Qatar-specific domain names in Arabic.
Qatar was one of the first countries to apply to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for creation of an Arabic Domain Name. Qatar-specific Arabic Domain Names will be available starting in March 2011, with government entities and registered trademark holders being given priority during the registration launch phases. ictQATAR's website is serving as a pilot for accessing and using new Arabic language domains.
Qatar's domain names will be managed by ictQATAR through the Qatar Domain Names Registry, which will offer most domain names to the public through accredited registrars, except for specialized domain names for government, military, not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions, which will require registrations from ictQATAR.
Qatar is among the first countries in the world to offer non-Latin language scripts in domain names. ictQATAR led Qatar's application process for the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) and was part of a fast-track process with ICANN for approval. Qatar received official delegation for its Arabic domains in December 2010, and has been working to meet all of ICANN's technical requirements for the rollout and administration of the domain names since.
Prior to ICANN's Board approval to delegate Qatar's Domain Names Management to ictQATAR, Qatar Telecom "Qtel" was administering ".qa" domain names since 1996. Qatar's Arabic Domain name ".قطر" (.qatar) was not previously available, and was initiated by ictQATAR.