Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Ministry of Transport,  Information Technology and Communications /MTITC/ and the organizations which represent the internet community in Bulgaria will consolidate the dialogue with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers /ICANN/ in connection with the desire for registration of “bg” as a state domain in Cyrillic alphabet. This was decided by a working group of representatives of MTITC, ICANN, Register.BG, Superhosting.bg, UNINET, Bascom, the Bulgarian Web Association, BAIT. The discussion was iniciated by the Ministry to discuss common actions about the internet name of Bulgaria in Cyrillic.

The experts shared the opinion that after the refusal of ICANN to register “bg” quickly because of the visual similarity with existing Latin symbols, the Bulgarian country will wait for a second opportunity to apply for the desired name. MTITC will address the Council on Standardization of the Geographical Names to take action to record the string “bg” in the UN official lists with the contry codes. In opinion of participants in the workgroup this will be an additional argument in favour of Bulgaria’s desire to register these symbols in Cyrillic in the internet space.The dialogue between the ministry and the NGO sector in the field of the internet governance continue in partnership.

In November 2009 MTITC drew up a plan for a preparation of Bulgaria’s participation in the rapid process of domain registration in a mother tongue. In December 2009 started an online poll about the name in Cyrillic and the expectations from the register of the new domain. The application for the symbols was sent in ICANN on February 19, 2010. On May, 18, 2010 the refusal for registration of the string was received. The rapid procedure does not provide an opportunity for objection and reconsideration. In the period July-August 2010 MTITC hold new public opinion poll in order to examine the adjustment of the Bulgarian internet users about a new name of Bulgaria’s domain in Cyrillic. The survey results confirmed again that “bg” is a favorite in the internet community.