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.ae

Introduced	1992
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	.aeDA
Sponsor	TRA
Intended use	Entities connected with  United Arab Emirates
Actual use	Very popular in U.A.E.
Registration restrictions	(only applicable to registrations under third level) Local presence, Must present documentation (business registration, certificate from relevant ministry (for org, mil, gov, sch and ac)
Structure	Names can be registered directly at the second level; third-level registrations are also available under some second-level labels
Documents	Domain Name Elegibility Policy
Dispute policies	.aeDRP
Website	aeda.ae

.ae is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

[edit] Second and third level registrations

Registrations are permitted directly at the second level (Unrestricted Zone) or at the third level (Restricted Zone) beneath several category labels. During 1995-2003 .co.ae was used for commercial entities, but this has been deprecated by UAEnic in 2003 in preference to the commercial use of second-level registrations; existing .co.ae registrations were allowed to be retained if their registrants so desire. During 2008 when .ae was re-delegated to the TRA, the .aeDA published new policies in which .co.ae was introduced only for local commercial companies provided that the name is connected to the business name.

• .ae — Companies, Organizations or Individuals
• .net.ae — Network Providers
• .gov.ae — Government and Ministries
• .ac.ae — Colleges, Universities or Academic Institute
• .sch.ae — Public and Private Schools
• .org.ae — Non Profit Organizations
• .mil.ae — Military Entities
• .pro.ae — Professionals -- was deprecated by .aeDA in 2008
• .name.ae — Individuals -- was deprecated by .aeDA in 2008

.ae domain names can be registered through one of the .ae Accredited Registrars.

[edit] Re-delegation of .ae

The .AE domain was originally delegated to UUNET. Recognising the domain should be administered in country, the domain was transferred in 1995 to Etisalat, following a brief period of administration by the United Arab Emirates University. Since that time, Etisalat, through its division the UAE Network Information Center (UAEnic), has been responsible for the operation of the .AE domain.

During GITEX2006, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority TRA announced that, the .ae ccTLD management and operations will be re-delegated to the TRA from Etisalat/UAEnic, the current .ae ccTLD manager. A New entity called .ae Domain Administration .aeDA has been formed to take care of management and operations of .ae based on latest DNS and Domain Registry technologies. During January 2008, IANA has officially re-delegated .ae Domain to the TRA.

On 3rd of August, 2008 the .aeDA has took over the DNS and launched their services with the new registry system which supports Registry-Registrar model. Currently the .aeDA has accredited 8 registrars from different parts of the world. For the first time, Internet users in the UAE will be able to register/manage their Domain Names under .ae automatically using online system without going through manual process which used to take upto 6 weeks for domain registrations. As per .aeDA policies, current domain holders are allowed to transfer between registrars at no cost.

The .ae is the first ccTLD in the Arab region to use standard Registry-Registrar model and the .aeDA is the first registry in the region to use industry-standard Extensible Provisioning Protocol to manage its domains.

[edit] Accredited Registrars

As of 27th of Oct 2008, there have been nine accredited registrars as follow:

• UAENic/Etisalat
• Du
• Ascio
• Instra
• Mark Monitor
• IP Mirror
• Innter.Net
• Engage.ae/AEserver
• Rerun/101Domain

[edit] Transfer between Registrars

Registrants (domain name holders) can transfer their domains from one registrar to another provided that they obtain a domain name password. Domain name passwords can be recovered online through .aeDA's website password-recovery.aeda.net.ae. After obtaining this password, registrants can supply this password to the gaining registrar who will be able to transfer it directly without dealing with the losing registrar. Losing registrars are prohibited from charging a fee when a domain transfer occur however gaining registrars may do so.

[edit] Domain Name Pricing

.ae domain name retail prices ranges from 30 USD to 200 USD depending on the provider and the level of support and services provided with the domain name.

The .ae registration prices has noticeably dropped since the introduction of .aeDA. Prior to 3rd of August 2008, .ae domains were offered by Etisalat for around 41 USD per year while ac.ae, org.ae, gov.ae and sch.ae were offered for around 20 USD per year. International providers used to charge around 100-200 USD in order to cover the administrative cost invovled in the manual registration process.

After .aeDA's go-live in August 2008, .ae registration price declined to as low as 30 USD with international registrars. Etisalat prices seems to be fixed at 41 USD per year.

[edit] External links

• .ae Domain Administration (.aeDA)
• whois service for .ae
• list of .ae accredited registrars
• UAEnic, the former delegate of .ae.
• IANA .ae whois information