.ma
 | |
| Introduced | 1993 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Maroc Telecom |
| Sponsor | Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications |
| Intended use |
Entities connected with  Morocco |
| Actual use |
Popular in Morocco |
| Registration restrictions | Must have a local contact |
| Structure | Registrations are made directly at the second level or at third level beneath second-level categories |
| Documents | Charter |
| Dispute policies | |
| Website | nic.ma |
.ma is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Morocco. A local registrar with a local Moroccan company as administrative contact is needed to register an .ma or .co.ma domain name. Further restrictions are imposed on the registering of other second-level domains (such as .net.ma or .gov.ma).
History
In 1993, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) approved a request for delegation of the .ma ccTLD for administrative and technical contact to Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs.
In 1995 the technical management of the .ma domain was taken over by Maroc Telecom is still the (not formal) technical maintainer.
On 12 May 2006 IANA redesignated the administrative and technical contact for the domain, and made ANRT (Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications) the only official registrar for the .ma ccTLD.[1]
Within some years the ANRT will request the market to bid on a "Technical maintainer" license which is valid for five years. The new party will get 12 months to implement a provisioning system based on Extensible Provisioning Protocol. Automatic provisioning of .ma domains cannot be expected until 2013.
Practical information
- Total hosts of .ma: 36,669 (04/10/2010)[2]
- Total internet users in Morocco: 7,300,000 (2006)[3]
- Total ADSL connection in Morocco: 550,000 (2007)[4]
Second-level domains
Registration can be done directly at the second level, or at the third level beneath these names:
- .ma: General use
- net.ma: Internet providers
- ac.ma: educational institutions
- org.ma: organizations
- gov.ma: governmental entities
- press.ma: the press and publications
- co.ma: commercial entities
Second top-level domain
A second top-level domain will be used for Morocco intended for domain names in the local language using Arabic characters. The string المغرب. has been registered and approved for this purpose, but it is not yet active (April 2011) and lower level domains have not been granted yet.
References
- ↑ "IANA Report on the Redelegation of the .MA Top-Level Domain". Retrieved 2008-05-03.
- ↑ "Statistiques". NIC.MA. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
- ↑ "The World Factbook – Morocco". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 25 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ↑ "ANALYSE DE L’EVOLUTION DU SECTEUR DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS POUR L’ANNEE 2007" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-05-03.