The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has approved Abu Ghazaleh Intellectual Property as its fifth registrar licensed to issue domain names for .om (in both English and Arabic).
Dot Oman is pronounced 'nuqta Oman' in Arabic. The Arabic version does not include the 'www' prefix for websites.
Abu Ghazaleh joins OmanTel, Ooredoo, Gulf CyberTech and Oman Data Park as licensed registrars who can register website names on behalf of TRA.
"This is another step for dot Oman and nuqta Oman,” said Suleiman al Rawahi, manager of TRA's domain name department. “We hope people will know about .om, enhance it and use it as something Omani.”
There are 91 sites which use the Arabic version of .om and 3,273 sites that use the English version. All government entities use the Omani domain name.
Officials said the Arabic domain name helps organisations promote themselves as Omani brands.
Abu Ghazaleh has similar arrangements as a licensed registrar in UAE and Qatar and is also planning on open up in Morocco and Tunisia, according to executive director Mahmoud A Lattouf.
Source: http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/TRA-approves-fifth-registrar-for-Omani-domain-names-4gkv