Members of the general public can now take advantage of the abundance of uniquely Qatar Internet domain names (.QA) that are available through accredited registrars.
Qatar Domains Registry (QDR) has officially made Qatar-specific Internet domain names available to the public, allowing individuals and businesses alike to secure a personalized, unique and respected domain names ending in .QA . Qatar domain names in Arabic ( .قطر ) will be available to the public in late October.
“Qatar-specific domain names are an important part of growing the country’s online presence. We anticipate tremendous interest in the Qatar domain names because they open a tremendous range of opportunities for businesses and individuals online. Qatar-domain names allow you to choose a name that is specific to you or your business, while showing that you are uniquely Qatar,” said Saleh Al-Kuwari, Chief Technical Manager at ictQATAR.
The Qatar-specific domain names are available to the public through accredited registrars that have been approved by Qatar Domains Registry. QDR adopted a Registry-Registrar based business model to encourage competition, choice and innovation.
Currently there are ten registrars that have been accredited by QDR to offer the domain names. These registrars are Qtel, W3infotech, IP Mirror, Ascio, MarkMonitor, Marcaria.com, EPAG Domainservices, Safenames, CPS-Datensysteme, and Mesh Digital.
To register a Qatar-specific domain name, visit the QDR website at
www.domains.qa or the Arabic domain (
نطاقات.قطر) to first check the availability of the specific domain name. If the domain name is available, you will be directed to a list of registrars you can choose from to purchase the domain name. For any government, academic, non-profit or military institution, registration of a Qatar domain name must be done directly with QDR.
Prior to the making the .QA domain available to the public, QDR held a “sunrise” period for the domains which enabled trademark holders and government entities to register for the Qatar-specific domain names. The Qatar domain names in Arabic are still in the sunrise period.
ictQATAR manages the Qatar Domains Registry and led the process with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for creation of an Arabic domain name for Qatar. Currently, a number of websites are being used as pilots for the new Arabic domain names, including ictQATAR (
http://الاعلي-للاتصالات.قطر ) , Hukoomi (
http://حكومة.قطر) rel="noopener noreferrer" and Qatar University (
http://جامعة.قطر )
