Local is lekker, especially when it’s on the internet
THE city of Durban is soon to get its own internet domain. Businesses, organisations and private entities will then be able to buy web addresses bearing the .Durban domain, which is being launched alongside .Joburg and .Cape Town.
While the new city domains are not viewed as a replacement of the existing .co.za domain used across South Africa, their introduction is a new development in the local internet landscape.
An unveiling of the .Durban domain was held in the city this week, co-hosted by the South African domain name regulator, Za Domain Name Authority (Zadna).
Vika Mpisane, the chief executive of Zadna, said the city domain project arose from the organisation’s mandate to regularly improve the country’s domain name space.
There are around 930 000 .za names registered.
“We have been anticipating how the domain name industry will develop and knew there would be new top-level domain names. It is important that we have the infrastructure to take advantage of that,” he said.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the international organisation responsible for issues related to namespaces of the internet and introduction of top-level domains, invited regulators around the world to propose new domain names.
It cost Zedna $185 000 (nearly R2 million) per application for .Durban, .Joburg and .Cape Town.
“In 2011 a decision was made to allow for new name spaces to promote competition and to decentralise the industry. We made a recommendation for our three key cities.”
Other cities around the world like New York, Paris and London would also have top level domain names.
“It’s important not only for the promotion of the cities but that the investment made in the registration of domain names circulates in South Africa. When you register a .com, a big portion of the fee goes out the country,” said Mpisane.
General applications will open on October 1.
The public can expect to pay R200-R300 to register a name.