.bj

.bj is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Benin. It is managed by Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et de la Poste du Bénin (ARCEP BENIN). Despite having no "j" in its name in any of its official languages, Benin was allocated .bj as the other possible codes .be, .bn, and .bi had already been allocated to other entities.

Delegation History

The .bj top-level domain was initially delegated to the Republic of Benin's Office des Postes et Telecommunications (OPT) in the mid-1990s.

On 5 May 2004, OPT was restructured, resulting in the establishment of Benin Telecoms SA and the transfer of telecommunications-related commercial activities to the new entity. In 2012, this change was assessed to be a governmental restructure and the IANA root zone database was updated to recognize Benin Telecoms SA as the manager of .bj.

In 2014, the Government of Benin solicited a feasibility study on setting up a new management structure for the .bj top-level domain, as part of its e-Benin Project. It commissioned Technologies Reseaux & Solutions (TRS), a Togo-based consulting firm composed of specialists in the fields of computer networks and telecommunications, digital economy, law and Internet governance to perform the study. As part of this study, a survey of the Beninese national Internet community was organized. The questions covered a broad range of topics, including the selection of a new management model for the .bj top-level domain. After analyzing the results of the survey, TRS prepared a feasibility report that recommended transitioning .bj to a public/private partnership model, with the regulatory authority contracting with a private partner to provide registry services.

On 9 July 2014, Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et de la Poste du Bénin (ARCEP BENIN) was established by Act 2014-14 on "Electronic Communications and Postal Services in the Republic of Benin" as a regulatory authority. This law was later superseded by Act 2017-20 on the "Digital Code in the Republic of Benin" in 2018. Articles 209 and 211 of Act 2017-20 state that "the management of domain names, the assignment of all national addressing resources as well as the management of national addressing plan are under the jurisdiction of the regulatory authority" and that "the regulatory authority determines management rules for the domain names".

In March of 2017, ARCEP BENIN initiated a bidding process to select a registry operator for the .bj top-level domain. After five applications were evaluated, JENY SAS, an Internet Service Provider operating in Benin, was selected and signed an agreement on 14 July 2018 with ARCEP BENIN to provide registry services for the .bj top-level domain.

Rules

The applicant freely chooses their domain name. However, domain names must not compromise national security, public order, the interests of the State and public authorities, or be contrary to morality and good conduct. Additionally, they must not offend religion, language, culture, or political opinions, nor use terms with racist, identity-based, or ethnocentric connotations.

Reservations

The following terms are reserved by the Registry and therefore cannot be registered: bj; nic; www; web; w3; whois; registry.

Special Conditions

There are domain names whose registration is subject to special conditions, related to the identity and rights of the applicant. Under the category of "domains subject to prior review," the following are included, among others: Internet organizations and protocols (arpanet, inaddr, ipv6, icann, etc.), names of regulated professions (lawyer, surgeon, doctor, etc.), terms related to the functioning and institutions of the State (administration, embassy, ministry, assembly, gendarmerie, etc.), terms related to crimes and offenses (espionage, counterfeiting, treason, assault, terrorism, banditry, etc.), names of countries and cities (Benin, Cotonou, Parakou, Abomey, Lokossa, etc.), terms related to freedoms and religions (bible, catholic, strike, sorcerer, voodoo, etc.), terms related to international organizations (OAU, UN, peacekeeper, OHADA, UEMOA, CEMAC, etc.), terms related to health (alcohol, smoking, drunkenness, medications, etc.), terms related to values (brothel, slavery, racism, torture, etc.), generic terms, etc. They also concern names that have been registered with national, regional, and international authorities responsible for the protection of intellectual property rights, in accordance with international conventions signed by the State of Benin.

Considered as elements in this category are domain names composed of a single character and only two letters.

Second-level Domains

The second-level domains can be either descriptive or sector-specific. Descriptive domain names aim to describe an activity or a given title, while sector-specific domain names are used to identify a branch of activity or a regulated or unregulated sector. The sector-specific domains available at the Registrars are as follows:

• com.bj: Businesses;
• org.bj: NGOs, non-profits and associations;
• tourism.bj: Any company or organization operating in the field of Tourism;
• info.bj: Print and broadcast media; television;
• edu.bj: Primary and secondary educational institutions;
• univ.bj: University institutions;
• assur.bj: Insurance companies;
• net.bj: Public telecommunications network operators;
• architectes.bj: Architectural firms;
• avocats.bj: Law firms;
• gouv.bj: Government and governmental bodies (the registration of domain names under the ".gouv.bj" extension is managed by the entity designated by the State);
• resto.bj / restaurant.bj: Restaurants;
• loisirs.bj: Hobbies and leisure;
• agro.bj: Agriculture;
• econo.bj: Finance and economy;
• eco.bj: Environmental;
• santé.bj: Health related;
• hotels.bj: Hotels.

Characters

The following alphanumeric characters are accepted as domain names: a, à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, b, c, ç, d, e, è, é, ê, ë, f, g, h, i, ì, í, î, ï, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, o, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, œ, p, q, r, s, t, u, ù, ú, û, ü, v, w, x, y, ý, ÿ, z, ß, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and - (hyphen).

The following domain names cannot be registered:

• Names starting or ending with a hyphen "–";
• Names longer than 255 characters (63 characters between each ".");
• Names beginning with "xn--".

Characters that do not comply with extended ASCII code are not allowed.

Internationalized domain names are converted into an ASCII domain name (Punycode format) according to the IDNA protocol (Internationalized Domain Names in Applications, RFC 3490). For example, www.académie.bj would be converted to www.xn--acadmie-npb1a.bj.

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