The administration of the country code top-level domain administration, dot na (.na), is presently administered by an individual, Dr. E. Lisse. The present administration has caused much unhappiness in the Namibian community.

Amongst others, the administrator does not allow online registration and insists only on ISP’s being able to register domain names. This has led to some ISP’s not registering any Namibian domains, but rather dot com’s (.com). According to the ISP’s, more than 70% of the companies and individuals prefer a .com rather than the Namibian domain.

The complaints made most often are:

• Registration cost are expensive (.com=N$90 .na=N$565), with foreign-based entities being charged seven times more;
• Registration must take place through identified companies – no automation;
• Registrar is “dictatorial, discriminatory and dysfunctional”; and
• “Nuisance Fees” are charged.

At a conference in August 2007, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Honourable Nandi-Ndeutwah, stated “It is also clear to me that the .na (dot na) domain registration issue needs to be resolved, while domain registration in general also needs regulation. The .na domain is a national asset…”

In response to these requests from Government, businesses, NGO’s and users, the ICT Alliance prepared a strategy to deal with the issue of the top-level domain administration.

Historical background papers as well as several briefing papers were disseminated to all stakeholders. It was then decided to hold a Workshop on 20 September 2007 at the Safari Court Hotel in Windhoek. The theme, for the workshop was “Regulatory Framework for Domain Administration”.

The workshop was attended by more than 60 delegates representing ICT companies, government institutions and ministries, non-government organisations (NGO’s), educational institutions as well individuals who are involved in the ICT industry. The aim of the workshop was to propose the way forward, and more specifically decide upon the process for preparing an application for redelegation with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The ICT Alliance

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Alliance of Namibia has a large cross-sectoral stakeholder community. The Alliance aims to provide consensus and resolve difficult issues such as Universal Access definitions and proposals amongst others.

The Alliance has further sub-divided itself into three sub-committees, namely

• Capacity Building;
• ICT Industry; and
• ICT Policy and Universal Access.

The ICT Policy and Universal Access sub-committee is tasked with investigating and proposing solutions on the issue of redelegation of the country code top-level domain administration.

History of the domain administration

• 1990 - Dr E. Lisse registers the .na domain with Internic (the then Internet domain name registrar)
• 1994 - Various role-players, for example Schoemans, PC Centre, UNDP together with Dr. Lisse established a non-governmental organisation called NAMIDEF to promote the usage of the Internet. NAMIDEF established the first leased line using TCP/IP that allowed customer dial-up to collect electronic mail.
• 1996 - Commercial resellers of bandwidth appear, for example IWWN, MWEB, IAfrica, etc.
  • UUNET take-over the servers from NAMIDEF and provide a commercial service
  • The domain administrator is (and has remained) Dr. Lisse. 2004 - The Office of the Prime Minister prepares a submission to ICANN for possible redelegation
• 2005 - ICT Alliance comes into being with after a merger of the Namibian Information Technology Association (NITA). The Alliance comprises government departments, educational institutions, private businesses, non-governmental organisations, individuals and students.
  • ICT Alliance receives financial assistance to identify ways of optimising the regulatory framework of the domain administratio
• 2007 - The domain administration is presently carried out by the company ONDIS with its offices in Swakopmund. The servers of the company are situated offshore in Germany.
  • The ICT Alliance establishes a planning subcommittee to arrange a workshop for the discussion of the regulatory framework of the domain administration. The workshop held on 20 September, brings together more than 60 individuals representing government, private sector, non-governmental organisations and users.

Workshop Overview

The workshop was widely advertised via email and newspapers. Individualised invitations were also sent to all stakeholder groups, including the present registrar. The programme of the workshop is attached as Annex A.

The workshop programme had five focus areas:

• History of the cc TLDA;
• Overview of best practices in other countries;
• Presentation of the ICANN procedures when requesting redelegation;
• Overview of the submission to the Information and Communications (IC) Bill; and
• Report back by the legal drafters of the IC Bill.

History

The history was presented by Mr. Len le Roux, Director of Rossing Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in the development sector. Mr. Le Roux was one of the founding members of NAMIDEF. His presentation covered the creation of the domain .na, and the reasons for the present status.

Overview of best practices

Mr. Eric Osiakwan, Executive Director of AfriSpa, gave an overview of two countries, namely South Africa and Kenya. The two authorities are created through legislation and have Boards that are representative of all stakeholders.

In addition, these organisation, the Kenya Information Network Centre and .za Domain name Authority, are responsible for:

• Manage and operate the country code TLDA
• Promote the utilization of the name space
• Promote growth and development of ICT’s in rural and low incomes areas
• Represent views of the Internet community at local and International events and conferences.

ICANN procedures

The presentation of the procedures for redelegation through ICANN was presented by Lodewyk van Graan, CEO of Institute of Information Technology. Mr. van Graan is also a Board member of the ICT Alliance and is tasked with the .na issue.

The process has been followed in Namibia as the Alliance has received support from all stakeholders and the workshop was the culmination of the efforts. The participants were assured of that commitments to assist in developing the necessary infrastructure have been received from companies, and more specifically the ISP’s.

Mr. van Graan reiterated the position of the Alliance namely “…we hope to have participation of the present registrar in the process…”

Domain Name Authority submission to the Information and Communications Bill

The Secretary of the ICT Alliance, Mr. Milton Louw, gave a presentation on the submission for the Government of Namibia to include a Domain Name Authority in the Bill to regulate Information and Communications in the country.

This Bill has taken more than seven years to be completed, but the Prime Minister has given his personal assurance it will be tabled in Parliament during the present session (2007).

The ICT Alliance submission suggests the creation of such an authority via national legislation, but strongly urges an independent body representative of all stakeholders – government, public institutions, private sector, academics and users.

Status of the Information and Communications Bill

The legal advisor to the Minister, Mr. Sackey Shangala of the Attorney-General’s Office, gave an overview of the drafting process and explained the submissions made to Cabinet.

The new Bill will include provision for a Domain Name Authority; however, it will only provide the general legislative environment. It is expected that the Minister of Information and Broadcasting together with the DNA will create regulations and guidelines as and when they become necessary.

Workshop Outcomes

• The ICT Alliance is representative of the various stakeholders and is the appropriate organisation to manage the transition of the redelegation until the statutory body is in place
• The ICT Alliance becomes a member of AfriSPa (African ISP Associations)
• Participants verbal, and written, comments include:
  • reduce costs for .na domains
  • need efficient access and management of the domain
  • present administrator is unapproachable
  • domain administrator must be representative of government, academics, business and users
  • dispute resolution body must be created
  • service level agreement is needed with registrar
  • domain name authority must be a partnership between all stakeholders
  • current registrar must be invited to be part of the process, if he refuses, redelegation must still continue
  • Namibia is losing “visibility” on the Internet
  • Information awareness campaign needed for this and other Internet related issues amongst the general population
  • “… in the local language “!na” means good – let us make it so”

Conclusion

The ICT Alliance is tasked with submitting an application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The submission should include:

• History of the .na domain
• Report on the cc TLDA Workshop
• Letters of support from
• Government
• Private sector
• Academic institutions
• Non-Governmental Organisations
• Users
• Technical proposal on how redelegation will be handled

The ICT Alliance met with Eric Osiakwan, Executive Secretary of AfriSpa, and proposed a programme of work that will include sending a member of the Board to the ICANN Annual General Meeting to be held in Los Angeles, USA from 25-28 October 2007.

In addition, the Alliance will facilitate a meeting with the CEO of ICANN and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

The technical proposal is also to be completed while financing must be sought for the programme of work.