Egypt uses IGF to launch new Arabic Internet domain
The 4th Internet Governance Forum meeting is currently under way in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The country's information technology minister Tarek Kamel took advantage of the spotlight currently being shined on the local Internet community to announce a forthcoming Arabic version of Egypt's national domain.
Pronounced ".MISR" and spelled .مصر in Arabic script, the new TLD translates as "Egypt". It will be applied for as part of ICANN's IDN ccTLD fast-track program which officially launches today.
Using .MISR, local Internet users will no longer have to type any Latin characters (both the domain and its suffix will be in Arabic) to access compatible websites. "Over half the Internet users around the world don’t use a Latin-based script as their native language," said ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom in a separate comment. "IDNs are about making the Internet more global and accessible for everyone."
No launch schedule has yet been released for Egypt's new TLD. But according to ICANN, once the requests are evaluated and approved, IDN ccTLDs are expected to come online during 2010.
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