<h1 class="entry-title"><font size="2">All, I thought you'd want to see and comment on the below. Among others, the author claims in the last paragraph that " <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The map above shows the country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) of
the African continent. Africa has more recognized countries than any
other continent but only 10 of the ccTLDs have functional registries
within the African countries they belong to." You can comment directly on their website, I did!</span></font></h1><a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/">http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/</a><br>
<br><h1 class="entry-title"></h1><h1 class="entry-title">The Untold Story of African ccTLDs</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published" title="2009-12-02T07:41:10+0300">December 2, 2009</abbr></span> | <a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/email/" title="Email This Post" rel="nofollow"><img class="WP-EmailIcon" src="http://appfrica.net/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-email/images/email_famfamfam.png" alt="Email This Post" title="Email This Post" style="border: 0px none ;"></a> <a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/email/" title="Email This Post" rel="nofollow">Email This Post</a> | <a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/print/" title="Print This Post" rel="nofollow"><img class="WP-PrintIcon" src="http://appfrica.net/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-print/images/printer_famfamfam.gif" alt="Print This Post" title="Print This Post" style="border: 0px none ;"></a> <a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/12/02/the-untold-story-of-african-cctlds/print/" title="Print This Post" rel="nofollow">Print This Post</a></div>
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<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ww4f/4100846766/in/set-72157622795111374/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2569/4100846766_5f4e423bd7_o.png"></a></p>
<p>In my <a href="http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/11/13/infostate-of-africa/">Infostate of Africa graphic</a>
I tried to bring attention to one of the geekier problems facing
Africa: the issue of country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLDs) and why
only a fifth of African countries own and control them. For those of
you who aren’t sure what this means, think .us, .uk, .nz, .jp etc.
(United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Japan respectively),
all those domains are owned, controlled by and managed from the
countries they represent. Not the case in the majority of African
countries.</p>
<p>In her post <a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/03/20/african-tld-issue-sparks-heated-debate">African TLD issue sparks heated debate</a>, Rebecca Wanjiku explains why…</p>
<blockquote><p> African countries struggling to take over management of
their country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) should invest in servers
and training engineers to operate registries before complaining, said
Ann Rachel Inne, Africa region liaison at the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).Some of the countries complaining
about the TLD delegation process have not invested in the technology
necessary to manage their own TLDs, Inne said. They lack databases
showing how many domains exist under the country code, she said.
</p></blockquote>
<p>This has lead to many of Africa’s ccTLD’s to be managed and operated by foreign private companies or individuals.</p>
<blockquote><p> Rwanda, Congo (Brazaville) and the Democratic Republic
of Congo complained that their ccTLDs are operated by a Belgian living
in Switzerland, and that pleas to ICANN for repatriation of the domain
management have not yielded results.</p>
<p>The Rwanda ICT Association has been trying to redelegate management
of the .rw TLD for two years, according to Pierre Claver Secyugu, a
government delegate from Rwanda. “We hoped to complete the redelegation
process in three months.”</p>
<p>Mauritius has one of the most developed ICT infrastructure in the
continent, but Mohammed Asraf Ally Dulull, minister of Information and
Communications Technology, said that country has yet to take management
of the .mu domain from an individual operating in California with
servers in different parts of the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Africa’s ccTLDs</strong> – .ao, .bf, .bi, .bj, .bw, .cd,
.cf, .cg, .ci, .cm, .cv, .dj, .dz, .eg, .eh, .er, .et, .ga, .gh, .gm,
.gn, .gq, .gw, .ke, .km, .lr, .ls, .ly, .ma, .mg, .ml, .mr, .mu, .mw,
.mz, .na, .ne, .ng, .re, .rw, .sc, .sd, .sh, .sl, .sn, .so, .st, .sz,
.td, .tg, .tn, .tz, .ug, .za, .zm, .zw</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The map above shows the country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) of
the African continent. Africa has more recognized countries than any
other continent but only 10 of the ccTLDs have functional registries
within the African countries they belong to.</span> The Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority now allows sponsored top level domains. .ASIA is one
of them. Could this pave the way for the .AFRICA sTLD?</p>
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