Delegates cite high costs in localising internet use

By Macharia Kamau

Internet users might soon log on to websites with a dot Nairobi (.nairobi) domain name.

This will be possible if a proposed top level domain (TLD)names regime by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN) is approved.

Discussions to make the proposal a reality are almost complete. Once approved it will be possible to open up Internet domain names that is not limited to the nature of business.

The names in use include .com, .net, and .org and with the expansion, names such as dotnairobi, doteac and dotafrica would be in use.

Currently, there 22 TLD names. The process that was started last year at a meeting in Seoul Korea was discussed in detail during ICANN’s Nairobi meeting last week.

Participants at the Nairobi meet expect conclusive discussion at a similar meeting scheduled for Brussels, Belgium in June.

The costs that would come with the acquisition of such a name might, however, see local ICT firms and Kenyans locked out of using such names as dotkenya and dotnairobi or even dotmaasai despite being local.

There are many instances where Kenyan and generally African products have been used commercially on the global market by foreigners to earn billions of dollars, while their original owners have not benefited.

Such include the traditional basket (popularly known as the kiondo) and the kikoi . ICT players warn this is spilling over to Internet usage, with the example of Safari, a popular web browser whose owner has no East African connection, where the word has roots.

To be a registrar of top-level domain names, a firm requires $186, 000 (Sh14 million), deemed as too high by local Internet players.

Prohibitive costs

"The process should not be dictated by commercial terms. We should have a reasonable figure, especially for developing countries," said Sammy Buruchara, the chairman Kenyan Network Information Centre. "We have a heritage and hence should be able to influence these processes so that we are not disenfranchised," he said.

He said anything below Sh760,000 ($10,000) would be a reasonable fee. With a price tag of close to $1 million in addition to little demand for the domain names locally, Kenyan firms might not see the business sense.

Mr Buruchara, however, expected this to change with growing interest in Internet and many businesses shifting their operations online as well as new investors opting to set up shop on the web rather than physical stores.

"The names may not be in demand now but going by growth in Internet use, soon there will be a business demand for them," he said. He added that this is evident in the number of .ke domain names local firms have taken up.

Currently, there are over 12,000 websites ending with .ke name (also referred to as the country code top level domain — ccTLD).

Kenya ranks second after South Africa and better than Egypt with about 5 000 .eg names.