Government eyes domain name registry

THE Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has set up a working group to study the idea of establishing a Cambodian Network Information Centre (KHNIC) to manage domain name registration and encourage people to use the national (.kh) domain.

Ministry secretary of state Chea Manit led a meeting on June 25 to discuss the technical aspects related to the operations and management of such an information centre.

Manit said the registration procedure should follow the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) as a model.

He said KHNIC would need to be associated with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). Neighbouring countries Vietnam and Thailand have already established network information centres.

“Creation of the KHNIC would take time and require extensive research on all related aspects. For instance, Vietnam has a dedicated general department to manage domain name registration,” he said.

In Cambodia, the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia ( TRC) handles the .kh domain name registration while Telecom Cambodia handles the technical tasks.

“KHNIC management would involve the registration procedure and IP address management. The working group will continue to study the network information centre models of Thailand, Vietnam and other countries in the region,” Manit said.

TRC spokesperson Im Vutha, who participated in the meeting, told The Post on Monday that the working group will study the creation of the information centre.

“We are at the stage of study to establish a centre parallel with other ASEAN member states. The kind of mechanism for domain management that we want to follow is used by other countries,” he said.

Vutha encouraged people in Cambodia to use the national domain.

“People here are mostly using a foreign domain name. Around 3,000 local domains are being used,’’ he said, adding that there is no timeframe to create the KHNIC.

The TRC report noted the increasing number of internet users in Cambodia.

Registered mobile SIM cards provided by the Kingdom’s six mobile operators – CellCard, Metfone, Smart Axiata, qb, Seatel and CooTel – reached 21.63 million last year, up 11.63 per cent compared to 2018.

Internet usage increased 18.47 per cent and fixed broadband internet subscribers grew to 224,104, a 46 per cent rise.

The number of registered Facebook accounts also increased by 29 per cent to 8.8 million last year.