.ລາວ
.ລາວ is the IDN ccTLD for Laos. It is managed by Lao National Internet Center (LANIC), Ministry of Technology and Communications.[1]
The domain at the DNS root level is “ລາວ”. This is represented in ASCII-compatible encoding according to the IDNA specification as “xn--q7ce6a”. The individual Unicode code points that comprise this string are U+0EA5 U+0EB2 U+0EA7.
In the Lao language, the string has a transliteration and translation equivalent to “Lao” in English. The string is expressed using the Lao script.[2]
Delegation History
On 15 February 2010, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT) assigned LANIC the role of managing the .la top-level domain. This was later revised on 15 July 2016 by an additional Ministerial Decision, which granted LANIC the ability to continue to manage .la, and additionally the .ລາວ top-level domain.
On 4 January 2018, an application was made to the ICANN ccTLD IDN Fast Track Process to have the string "ລາວ" recognized as representing Lao PDR in Lao script.
On 13 December 2018, a review by the IDN Fast Track DNS Stability Panel found that the applied-for string “presents none of the threats to the stability or security of the DNS identified in Module 4 of the Fast Track Implementation Plan, and presents an acceptably low risk of user confusion" and the request for the "ລາວ" string to represent Lao was subsequently approved.
In June 2019, LANIC initiated a request for delegation of the .ລາວ top-level domain, which was granted in 2020.[2]
Usage
As of 2024, there are less than 70 .ລາວ active domain names.[3]