Dot Bangla domain registration to begin on Dec 16

Tech companies can register their internet domain on dot Bangla (.bangla) from December 16, Bangladesh's Victory Day.

“Through this process, Bangla will secure its position as a language in cyber space,” State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim said yesterday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN on October 5 sent a letter to the government, clearing the much-awaited internationalised domain name (IDN) label.

West Bengal in India and Sierra Leone both have one of their state languages as Bangla. They both applied for the same domain as well but it was awarded to Bangladesh.

The state minster said they will initially charge Tk 500 for a domain registration, which may be revised later.

Another ICANN-approved domain for Bangladesh is dot bd (.bd). Users have registered 36,500 websites with this label, according to BTCL.