Posts Tagged ‘TRA’

VOIP Public Consultation Paper Still On

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

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This is just a reminder for those who haven’t seen this on my Twitter, the TRA has extended the period for receiving responses to it’s public consultation paper of the regulation of VOIP, anybody upset about Skype being blocked here should write the TRA about this now! The new deadline is the 10th of October.

You can read the response I wrote to the TRA here.

Draft Response to VoIP Consultation Paper

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

First of all, a reminder to all of you that the deadline for submitting your response to the TRA’s public consultation paper on VoIP is the 10th of September. If you are one of these people who have been bitching about having Skype blocked in Oman for all these years then it is time you do something about it and write to the TRA why you think Skype should be unblocked.

I have written a draft response, which you can download from here, if you guys have any suggestions or points to add please let me know! Will try to send this in sometime next week.

 

The TRA is Ready to Discuss VoIP

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

The TRA has published a public consultation paper on the use of VoIP in Oman and it is now that everyone comes out and sends something to the TRA to tell them why exactly Skype has to be unblocked. The deadline for submitting your comments is the 10th of September. You can download the public consultation paper here.

Free WiFi in Oman?

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

The TRA has published a public consultation on the introduction of a policy to regulate the use of public wifi hotspots in order to encourage the spread of freely accessible wifi networks in public places to help increase the internet penetration in the country. The consultation paper asks for feedback regarding all aspects of the policy include locations where such hot spots would be necessary, the mechanism for businesses to make profit out of such hotspots, the authentication of users, and whether or not the government should itself help in funding hotspots in locations where it might not make business sense to make one. The deadline for responding is the 30th of November, you can view the PDF file via this link. Send your feedback ro this email address uso@tra.gov.om .

It is good to see that the government realises that free broadband internet is necessary and that it is not widely distributed, imagine if you had free wifi all over the Love Lane or other touristy places such as Souq Mattrah or even Qurum Park. That would be really awesome. If you have any ideas to share with the TRA please send them by email to the address mentioned above!

The TRA & Public Participation in Policy Making

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Even though many people dislike the policies made by the TRA (e.g. the upcoming ban of VPN) , I am one of the greatest fans of the TRA’s initiative to involve the public in the policy making process.

Even though Oman is still an absolute monarchy, the approach of the government over the years has been to slowly introduce venues for the public to participate in the policy making process to move Oman towards a more democratic system. Some might think that the development is way too slow, but it is there.

There are many examples of this starting from the establishment of the Shura Council, the passing of a Basic Statute of the State, and the development of role of the Oman Chamber of Commerce to allow the industry to lobby for changes in the law.

TRA has been brave enough to publish online draft regulations before they are passed so that the public is (a) aware of them before they are passed as law, and (b) able to comment on them and send feedback to the TRA. It is true that there is no guarantee that the TRA will accept any recommendations made by the public, but the fact that comments made by the public and the TRA’s responses to these comments are published online adds so much to the transparency of the process and helps us understand what the government is thinking.

According to my knowledge the TRA is the only government authority that does this, and I really applaud them for taking this initiative as it is in my opinion the greatest step made in involving the public in policy making process.

TRA .OM Domain Names Public Consultation

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

This is a reminder for all of those interested in .OM domain names, the deadline for submitting feedback to the TRA’s public consutlation paper on .OM domain name framework is November 8th (Next Saturday). So if you have any opinion on how domain names in Oman are regulated then please take a moment to read this and send your feedback.

You can download the proposed framework from here (Warning PDF link).

5 Million Rial Contract to Expand Broadband Network in Oman

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

The Tender Board made a press release today (Arabic Text) in which it announced the values of all the tenders that were recently approved for upcoming government projects: One worth 5 milion Omani Rials was approved for doing additional works for the expansion of the Internet broadband coverage to provide the services for a 100,000 users.

Here is the actual text in Arabic:

الاعمال الاضافية على المناقصة رقم 1172006 توسعة شبكة النطاق العريض لتوصيل خدمة الانترنت لعدد 100 الف مشترك بمبلغ وقدره 000ر000ر5 ر.ع.

These 5 million rials are for additional works for this tender, which presumably has started years ago (for another separate sum). It is unclear if these “additional works” are to expand the broadband network to a greater number of users (So this 100K could be an additional to the existing number from the previous tender) or to do something else completely (e.g. unforeseen changes required for the infrastructure, 100K users are those that had access to it from before and the access wil not expand to new users).

I do not know if this project is managed by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) or the Telecom Regulation Authority (TRA).

New Domain Regulations

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
I finished reading the new Domain Name Policy Frame work I told you about yesterday. It’s pretty interesting. The main highlights of it are:
  1. A new department in the TRA called .OM Domain Administration (omDA – We can call it 3umdah in Arabic I guess!) will be created and will be responsible for .OM domain names.
  2. 3umda will grant a license for companies to become Domain Name Registrars so that any company can offer domain name registration services and not just OmanTel. (They call it accreditation instead of license).
  3. Only companies with a working capital of more than RO 50,000 (sorry this was a typo) RO 20,000 can apply to become a registrar. The company (or some of its staff) must have at least six month experience in the domain name business before it can apply for accreditation. The application fee is RO 500, there are no annual fees. 3umda can terminate the service of non-performing registrars.
  4. 3umda will not specify retail prices and will give all companies the same wholesale price. Companies can set their own retail price. If only one company ends getting accredited then 3umda will have to agree to the retail prices with it.
  5. Companies will have to buy domain names from Registrars, not from 3umda directly.
  6. Individuals CANNOT buy domain names. Nobody can buy a domain name for personal use.
  7. Omani Tribe names are reserved names, you cannot register a domain name that is also a tribe name.
  8. Domain names cannot be sold. The policy says that people who register domain names do not own it, they merely have the right to use it and they cannot sell that right. If a registrar or 3umda learns of a sale transaction of a domain name the domain name will be suspended and neither the buyer or the seller will have it.
  9. 3umda  will suspend your domain name if a government authority or the police request that.
  10. You cannot buy a domain name that contains a trademark, a word close to it or a misspelled version of it.
The Framework has a lot of things which I thought were great and well thought out, make sure you read the whole thing if you are interested in learning about the domain name business.
I have issues with some of the points I mentioned above, especially the fact that individuals cannot buy .OM domain names – Oh my God that is so stupid. Individuals can have mobile phones, faxes, PO Boxes, land properties, computers, and internet lines, but they cannot have domain names, why? Because the internet is a place exclusive for businesses to sell us products. I find this so stupid I do not know where to begin.
Another major issue I have with this is the fact that people here do not understand the basics of trademark law and think that the safe way to prevent problems is by not allowing anyone to register a domain name that has a trademark. This does not make sense because a trademark does NOT grant its owner a global monopoly over the use of a term or a mark, but protects him from the use of the same trademark in a manner that will confuse other people in regard to the source of a product/service in question. Two people can legally register the same trademark for different businesses as long no customers are confused to the source of the product/service. Example:

Khaled decides to create a restuarant in Al Khode which he names “Cisco”. He applies for a trademark for the term Cisco under the one of the categories related to restaurants and catoring services. Cisco’s trademark is not violated because nobody would think that Cisco the restaurant is the same as Cisco the technology company.

This is clear from the meaning of Article 36(2)(vi) and Article 39(1) of the new Industrial Property Law (Royal Decree 67/2008) as both of these articles talk about “connected services and products”. This is the international position of this matter, but it is clear that the TRA has no idea about this as their framework does not take it into consideration.
The deadline for submitting your feedback about the new domain name framework is the 8th of November 2008. There is more than a month to read the framework and send your feedback to the TRA if you have any comments on it. I am going to sleep on this, do some research a bit and then write a response to the TRA. No idea if they will listen to what I will say but I would have done my part and tried to stop bitching and start a revolution.

The TRA .OM Public Consultation

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

The TRA announced two days ago the opening of a public consultation paper (Direct link to PDF) on the registration and usage of the .OM top level domain. In this public consultation paper the TRA shows us the regulations they are proposing and welcome any feedback from anyone in the public. They have no obligation to listen to what we say, but they might consider it. If you have any problems with the way domain names are registers this is your opportunity to speak up and tell them how you think it should be done.

For those who do not know, each country has a TLD (Top-Level-Domain) post-fix such as .uk, .jp, .ca which it can offer 3rd or 2nd level domain names to people to register their websites with. Oman owns the .om TLD and offers companies and organisations the opportunity to regsiter third level domain names under certain 2nd level domain extensions such as .com.om, .net.om, .org.om, etc.
In developed countries of the world, businesses and individuals have made use of locally branded domain names such as .co.uk, .co.jp, to let people know that this website has a geographically targetted audience. In Oman, .com.om domain names have never picked up, mostly because of the ridiculously expensive fees and the weird regulations required for registering a domain name. The current state of domain names in Oman is a mess:
  1. Companies do not seem to see a benefit in registering a .COM.OM domain name as opposed to a .COM domain name. Companies that host their website under a .COM.OM are finger countable. Even the biggest companies that can easily afford .COM.OM and .OM domain names do not seem care about one: BankMuscat, Bank Sohar, OIB, Galfar, Oman Air.
  2. The currently available 2LD domains are confusing, we have .om, .com.om, .co.om, and .ac.om and .edu.om. 
  3. The few bodies which use .OM TLDs and 2LDs do not use it under any clear logic. I do not understand why Omantel’s website is a .NET.OM, while Oman Mobile’s website is a .OM. Why don’t PEIE, KOM, or Origin Oman domain names have .GOV.OM domain name when they are government bodies/initiatives.
I personally do not think that the public in Oman make a connection with .OM domain names and local businesses, when somebody tries to guess a name of the website they will never try guessing .COM.OM domain names. I personally will not think that someone is more credible just because he/she has a .COM.OM domain name and I don’t think most people do. 
For the public to start making a connection with .OM domain names and local businesses these domain will have to be registered. Nobody is registering domain names because:
  1. There is no easy way for registering them online. You can search for available domain names through Omantel, but it is barely helpful. We can argue that we couldn’t register domain names online in the past because of they didn’t have a proper method for accepting payments online, but now that ITA launched the ePayment Gateway we will start seeing some.
  2. Currently, Omantel is the only .OM registrar and its prices are for registering domain names are extortionate. Currently a .COM.OM a domain name can set you back at RO 40 to RO 50 – on the other hand a straight forward .COM domain name will cost you less than $10 (RO 3.85). There are other TLD such a .UK domain name costs £2.95 (RO 2). In Oman, only a first class company with a capital of more than half a million (I think 1/2 a million is the number) can get the .OM domain name.
  3. The craziest thing about .OM domain names in Oman is that only registered bodies and professionals can apply for them. Individuals cannot register any .OM 2LD domain names for their personal use. There is no such rule in the US or the UK. Bloggers such as Muscati.com, KishorCariappa.com, Amjad248.com, MuscatxDubai.com, and even myself wouldn’t have had our domain names if such a rule if there was one, hell, even Sablat Al Arab and all Omani websites and forums won’t exist if there was such a rule in the US.
The domain name business has many players, first, there is ICANN, the international body that is responsible for TLD. The in Oman we have the TRA that is responsible for the .OM TLD, and then we have registrars, which are companies that register domain names such as OmanTel.
The new suggested .OM TLD framework will open up the .OM registration market by allowing any company with a working capital that exceeds 50K to become a registrant. The frame work provides the selection criteria, the fees involved and the code of practice. The TRA is also of the opinion that the current rules are generally too stringent and should be relaxed a bit to encourage people to register .OM domains.
I have not finished reading the framework yet. I will do that and then post some of my comments on it here before I send it to the TRA.

The Real Story Behind the Search.OM Proposal

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

An article posted yesterday on CNNMoney.com titled ‘ the Man Who Owns the Internet‘, uncovered the real story behind the Search.om Oman proposal I wrote about last month.

Kevin Ham is a very big domainer, ie a person who is in the business of buying domain names of generic keywords, trademarks, and popular misspelled variations of these to make profit off advertisement placed on parking pages or by later reselling the domain names for huge amounts of money. This sort of activity is not illegal when it does not involve cybersquatting (the registration of a domain name that includes a trademark owned by another), but it is widely considered immoral as the domainer makes profit by the typos people make when trying to access popular domain names whose owners worked hard to make their website names popular.

This guy, Kevin Ham, has gone a step further in the domain name game and managed to convince the government of Cameroon to install the search.om-like-wildcard to make all traffic attempting to access unregistered domains under the .cm extension to be redirected to his advertisement filled website.

Millions and millions of people access by mistake unresolved .cm domains when trying to type a .com website. Kevin Ham is making crazy amounts of profit by taking advantage of typos of generic and trademarked words and proper trademarks that are not registered under the .cm extension. He is not strictly doing anything illegal in the traditional sense because he did not register any offending domain name (ie one that contains a trademark), but he is getting all the traffic from these websites because the trademark holder did not register the domain name. To cure the problem, the trademark holder would have to register the domain, which is, at least in theory but not necessarily in practice in Cameroon, something relatively easy to do.

Only the government of Cameroon can do something about this because it owns the .cm TLD. A few other countries in the world have a similar incidental advantage through typos, namely Colombia (.co) and, here it comes, Oman (.om), all of which are very common typos of the world’s most popular TLD, the dot com (.com).

Kevin Ham is obviously going to pay a lot of money to Oman, and he has apparently made an offer, but we should contribute to the unfair practices of such a shady business, he is clearly taking advantage of the greatest trademarks whose owners have not yet registered their domain names, he is would probably be misleading many visitors to think that they have visited the websites they attempted to access.

The .om TLD is a digital web gold mine, it is a national property, we do not need Kevin Ham’s money and should not let him have such control over it.

Read more about Kevin Ham and his dirty business here:
The .cm Scam
WIPO Arbitration Case Involving Kevin Ham
Yahoo Outsmarts Google in Cameroon Domain Play
The man who owns the Internet


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