DOHA: Some 10,170 Internet domains have already been registered with accredited registrars after ictQatar announced that these unique local domain names ending with dot qa are available to the general public. Through their portal www.domains.qa, the ictQatar managed Qatar Domains Registry has been actively campaigning to industries and businesses to start availing with the abundance of domain names ending with dot qa through 10 accredited registrars worldwide including Qtel and local IT company W3infotech. More companies are expected to add the bulk of the local domain trademarks after local sites with Arabic contents can avail with the Arabic Qatar domain names by mid October. Of the 10 accredited registrars, Qtel and W3infotech offers domain names with dot qa, dot com dot qa, dot net dot qa, dot name dot qa and the Arabic .قطر Other registrars based from other countries like IP Mirror, Ascio, MarkMonitor, Marcaria.com, EPAG Domainservices, Safenames, CPS-Datensysteme, and Mesh Digital only offers services for domain names ending with dot qa. A top executive of W3infotech said there have been hundreds of businesses which already availed with their services since the Qatar domain names were open to the public early this month. He said prominent companies with trademark and without trademark in Qatar were conscious enough to protect their domain names to prevent others from misusing it since they are keen to use them for email and web hosting in the future. Rates of prices offered by W3infotech for Qatar domain names varies starting with QR250 for a year and up to QR1,000 for five years. A blog posted at the ictQatar Facebook page written by Julia Astashkina noted the importance of having a local specific domain name saying this would serve as a marketing strategy to let customers an easier time to locate their sites especially when using search engines like Google and Yahoo. “Companies with similar profile but without dot qa domain names don’t pop up in searches and directories,” Astashkina said in her blog. Saleh Al Kuwari, Chief Technical Manager at ictQatar, has said Qatar specific domain names are an important part of growing the country’s online presence because the open range of opportunities for businesses and individuals. “Qatar-domain names allow you to choose a name that is specific to you or your business, while showing that you are uniquely Qatar,” he said. The Peninsula

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