Bulgaria IT Firms Press ICANN over 'бг' Cyrillic Web Domain

Society | December 15, 2010, Wednesday // 14:01
Bulgaria: Bulgaria IT Firms Press ICANN over 'бг' Cyrillic Web Domain The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) turned down in May Bulgaria's proposal for a domain name in Cyrillic with a "бг" suffix. File photo

Bulgarian IT companies, desperate to get a domain name in Cyrillic with a "бг" suffix approved, plan an appeal against the decision of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which turned down the proposal this year.

"Over the last few years Bulgarian Internet users have clearly shown that this suffix enjoys the largest public approval," reads a statement, issued by the Bulgarian Web Association, the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies, Bulgaria ICT Cluster and the association of development companies BASSCOM.

The associations call for establishing an appeal procedure, which is currently lacking when it comes to the decisions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

"We recommend that ICANN Board of Directors requires a detailed and motivated reply when the registration of a proposed string is rejected," the letter adds.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) refused to accept Bulgaria's proposal for a domain name in Cyrillic with a "бг" suffix in May this year.

The news that the proposal was turned down did not come as a big surprise since the proposed domain name was harshly criticized in Bulgaria long before it was submitted for approval by ICANN with opponents, saying it resembles too much Brazil's domain name.

Bulgarians selected the now rejected "бг" suffix with a large majority during the first poll, which showed the second most preferred suffix to be "бгр".

A poll, proposing four new versions for a Bulgarian domain in Cyrillic, was published at the end of July on the official site of the Transport Ministry in a bid to pick the one with the largest public approval. The new versions that are subject to public discussion are "българия," "бгр," "бул" and/ or "бя."

The procedure for registering internet addresses with alphabets different than Latin was officially launched on November 16, 2009.

At the beginning of May three Mideast countries and Russia became the first to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.

Domain names in Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were added to the internet's master directories, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. A suffix for Russia in Cyrillic was also added to the list shortly afterward.

ICANN said it has received a total of 21 requests for such domains representing 11 languages so far.

This is the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

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Tags: bg, .бг, БГ, Cyrillic, domain name, ICANN, MTITC, Parvan Rusinov, българия, бгр, бул, бя

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