National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt: Difference between revisions

'''NTRA''' is the '''National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt''' is responsible for Egypt's Internet governance affairs,<ref>[http://www.ntra.gov.eg/english/dpages_dpagesdetails.asp?ID=397&Menu=7 Details, NTRA.gov.eg]</ref> and it also manages the country's [[IDN]] [[ccTLD]]. It provides telecommunication and Internet services to its users.<ref>[http://www.mcit.gov.eg/MediaPressSer_Details.aspx?ID=716&TypeID=3 mcit]</ref> It has been governing the Internet affairs of Egypt since 2006.<ref>[http://www.ntra.gov.eg/english/dpages_dpagesdetails.asp?ID=397&Menu=7 NTRA]</ref> The company is working actively to increase the number of high speed Internet users in Egypt.<ref>[http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-318/internet/ntra-cuts-adsl-price/en BalancingAct]</ref> It claims to have 9,652,171 subscribers as of September, 2011.<ref>[http://ntra.gov.eg/english/DPages_DPagesDetails.asp?ID=352 NTRA]</ref> To promote the use of landlines in Egypt, NTRA banned international calls made via Skype in 2010.<ref>[http://itknowledgehub.com/tag/ntra/ ITKnowledgeHub]</ref><ref>[http://www.iana.org/reports/2010/misr-report-21apr2010.html IANA]</ref>

 

NTRA is experienced with Arabic [[IDN]]s as it is the operator for [[مصر.]] (.misr), which is the IDN ccTLD for Egypt. It does not operate the traditional [[.eg]] [[ccTLD]]. They were the first organization to apply for a national IDN in Arabic.<ref>[http://www.tra.gov.eg/english/news_newsdetails.asp?PID=36&ID=164  News, TRA.gov.eg]</ref> They had no prior experience acting as a registry operator.<ref>[http://www.iana.org/reports/2010/misr-report-21apr2010.html MISR Report, IANA.org]</ref>

 

In January, 2011, the Egyptian Government, in the midst of a civil uprising, shut down the country's primary servers, which led to the inaccessibility of [[.eg]] and [[مصر.]] domains for the rest of the world. Both the Egyptian Universities Network and NTRA, operators for [[.eg]] and [[مصر.]] respectively, requested their secondary [[DNS]] servers outside Egypt, to maintain the web pages on the basis of last received data. [[ICANN]] considered this a serious issue, and one which could also occur as a consequence of a natural disaster. Therefore, to maintain a stable internet environment throughout the world, [[ICANN]] has proposed that the [[ccNSO]] make a policy for handling such situations.<ref>[http://blog.icann.org/2011/01/status-report-on-the-dns-in-egypt/ ICANN Blog]</ref>

NTRA hosted [[ICANN 33]] in Cairo in November, 2008, and an [[ICANN]] regional meeting in April, 2008.<ref>[http://www.ntra.gov.eg/english/Events_EventsDetails.asp?PID=19&ID=274 NTRA]</ref><ref>[http://www.ntra.gov.eg/english/Events_EventsDetails.asp?PID=19&ID=268 NTRA]</ref> It organized an [[IDN]] workshop in 2006.<ref>[http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02nov06.htm ICANN]</ref> In 2009, it organized an [[IPv6]] transition workshop for the [[IGF]] in conjunction with [[ICANN]] and [[AfriNIC]].<ref>[http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=53 Workshops Report 2009, intgovforum.org]</ref>

[[Category:CcTLD Registry]]