.mu Press Release March 2007

Public Consultation on the administration of .mu country code Top Level Domain (.mu ccTLD)

Press Release

The Government of Mauritius through the Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Mauritius, intends to pursue the administration of the country code Top Level Domain of Mauritius (.mu ccTLD) in accordance with the governing provision of section 18(1)(y) of the ICT Act 2001. To do so, it proposes to come up with a new .mu administration framework which will ensure full transparency and greater accountability towards the Internet community of Mauritius, and the rest of the Internet community, while preserving the stability of the existing .mu TLD.

The Consultation Paper which is being released today, describes the goals and associated issues of transitioning from the existing .mu administration, presently managed by a small group of individuals, to a more formally defined structure based on a local multi-stakeholder representation, which includes Government, private sector, academia and NGOs. In this respect, the ICT Authority is inviting comments from the public for the definition of new arrangements to be put in place to ensure a smooth transition.

As a first step within the proposed accountability framework, the ICT Authority is seeking inputs from the public as part of an inclusive process. Based on these inputs, the new .mu administration framework will primarily aim at catering for the needs of both the local Internet community and respecting the best practices of the global Internet community.
With the proposed arrangements, the .mu TLD purports to provide Mauritians with a digital identity (in the context of the Cyber Island) that is managed by a trusted authority located in Mauritius.
The overall objective is to make the country code top level domain .mu the obvious choice for all Internet users residing in Mauritius. Furthermore, it is important that the new framework for the administration of the .mu TLD safeguards the interests of the users. In this respect, the process of domain name assignment under .mu should be quick, of high quality and affordable to all. This process will, in turn, imply that the allocation of Internet domain names under .mu is undertaken via a new, robust, reliable and secure registration system which will ensure a good and responsive customer service, in a competitive fashion.

02 March 2007