Plans have been revealed to introduce a unique domain name for Oman.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) wants to rollout the country code top-level domain .om, which would allow businesses in the sultanate to develop a greater web presence, the Week reports.
Hilal O al Siyabi, manager of media and consumer affairs at TRA, said the main reason for the move is to bridge the gap between internet users who only speak Arabic, as it will increase the number of websites that use this language.
“Arabic-language users will now be able to have a seamless experience completely in Arabic from the moment they turn on their computers through to the point where they access required information on the Internet.
“It gives customers confidence that it is an authentic Omani website and highlights the organisation’s local presence. It will also help interlink a new segment of users.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the TRA will be able to update, transfer, remove and renew domain names across a number of levels, including .com.om, .edu.om, .gov.om, .org.om, .museum.om, .pro.om and .med.om.
Mohamed al Kindi, senior manager of TRA’s technical affairs unit, said it will observe the practices of neighboring states in order to make sure the process runs smoothly. He observed there is currently very little content made available in Arabic, a situation that he wants to see changed quickly.
He added people in Oman are “primarily content consumers” and so they need more websites displayed in this language in order to improve their experience of using the web. The hope for the new domain is that it will make information much more accessible at a local level, while the addition of a new register should also make the system more competitive.
The first domain name to be registered in Arabic was only back in 2009, so this is an area where a lot of growth can be expected.