Latest news of the domain name industry

Recent Posts

Another ccTLD opens up its second level

Kevin Murphy, September 30, 2024, Domain Registries

Kuwait has become the latest country to make second-level domain registrations possible directly under its national ccTLD.

The registry, government regulator the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA), said last week that it’s launching direct 2LD regs under .kw with an initial six-month sunrise period that has already started.

CITRA said in a press release that this first launch phase allows “government entities, registered trademark owners, and holders of third-level domains (.com.kw/.net.kw/.org.kw)” to register names.

The current three-level structure has six subdivisions, also including .ind.kw for individuals, .gov.kw for governmental entities, and .edu.kw for educational institutions. Local presence restrictions appear to apply to all.

While much of CITRA’s web site is available in English, its 2LD policies appear to be only published so far in Arabic, in PDFs that resist machine translation.

Domains in .kw currently cost about KWD15 (about $50) a year. Kuwait does not have an Arabic version of the ccTLD, but Arabic script is supported at the second and third levels.