.af

Status:	Active
country:	Afghanistan
Registry Provider:	Ministry of Communications and IT
Type:	ccTLD
More information:

.af is the ccTLD for Afghanistan. It is managed by the Ministry of Communications and IT.

Its national domain administrator and registry operator are both governmental organizations. Afghanistan Network Information Centre (AFGNIC) is the operator and a department under the TLD Administrator, ICT Directorate, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Delegation History

The .af ccTLD was one of the first ones to be re-delegated in the Middle East region. It was re-delegated by IANA in October 1997, wherein NetNames agreed to perform technical operations and provide free registration services on a temporary basis, until a stable registry operation could be established within the country. However, due to the country's ungoing civil war in the late '90s, NetNames, in consultation with IANA, halted registration of .af domain names, though it continued to make nameserver updates and to provide DNS resolution for the zone. By early 2000, NetNames and IANA could no longer have an on-site administrative contact person, as the one they did have disappeared.

It was under approval of the Afghan Interim Administration, which ceased existing about a year after the September 9/11 attacks, that the UNDP assumed the administration of the .af registry. Only a very small Internet community was found in Afghanistan at that time, primarily established by international organizations and NGOs located in Kabul. The UNDP agreed that, whenever possible, it would restore DNS service, build technical and administrative capacity within Afghanistan, and to shift technical operations to a community-based structure that included many sectors of society.

Country code top-level domain

Top-Level Domain

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority