Battle brewing over Belize domain name
It’s a field of business that those of us residing on the primitive side of the digital divide may not understand. But trust me, the battle over domain names is a big one…and Belize could wind up a winner.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
This week’s headline in the Reporter newspaper heralded that the Government has sold the country’s Internet domain name .bz. It’s the World Wide Web equivalent to a Belizean passport, our country’s digital home address. Carlos Namis of UB said yes, there were talks concerning the sale, but no deal has been consummated.
Carlos Namis, Registrar, Belize Internet Domain Name
“Last year there was a proposal sent to the Government of Belize by the company Economic Solutions, ESI. The Government of Belize revised the proposal, formed a committee comprised of the people of U.B. and the telecommunication company and the final decision was to grant ESI a marketing right over the domain. Basically what it means is that they would be able to attract some clients to the country of Belize if they wanted to raise an Internet domain, but the domain was going to be kept at the University College of Belize. The University College of Belize would continue to be the manager of that domain. Since then, ESI has not operated the way the Government of Belize was hoping, so it’s my understanding that the contract has been void due to none performance.”
.bz is an identifier for businesses operating in Belize in the realm of cyberspace. That is the importance of bz. However bz sounds like biz, .biz, which is short for business. That similarity may be worth millions of dollars on the Internet.
John Mencias, Technology Mgr., Business Services Network
“.biz on the internet, that is business like .com, that stands for company. I’m saying that .biz would be a great competitor, in fact I think it would overtake .com. We in Belize have an opportunity to promote .bz as the .biz of the Internet. Of course we have a situation here now where a company outside is proposing to use the .biz. I think it is in the interest of Belize to agitate that such a company does not get to use the .biz. And if anyone should the .biz it should be us. So we have potential here for large amounts of money. Up to six hundred thousand, over a million dollars a year from one company, who might be interested in this kind of thing.”
Carlos Namis
“Therehas been another proposal by Datapro in which they proposed that the University of Belize and Datapro join together and create the new entity that is going to manage the Internet domain. Right now the name of that entity will be the University Management Limited.”
Jose Sanchez
“With this new entity that U.B. is forming with Datapro, do you plan to pursue the possibility of the .biz domain?”
Carlos Namis
“Well practically, we were trying to stop ICANN from releasing the .biz not only with the business venture in mind, but trying to avoid confusion on the Internet. Definitely .bz and .biz are too close to each other and we just want to protect our integrity.”
John Mencias
“I think it is a great idea to market it outside of Belize to other companies and we have much to gain from using that.”
Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez
One example of a tiny nation cashing in on its designated domain name involves the Pacific island of Tuvalu. It’s domain letters, .tv are highly desired by entertainment companies for their websites. The country recently sold rights to use the name to a marketing firm in exchange for four million U.S. dollars a year and a twenty percent stake in the company.
