The Mauritius Government has won control of their ccTLD .MU from Internet Direct Ltd in an agreement reached this week.
âIt is a great step for the history of the countryâ, declared Asraf Dulull, Minister of Information and Communication Technology at the signing ceremony of the agreement to the seat of its ministry.
The Mauritian government will now establish a multi-sector committee that will have responsibility for the management of the ccTLD, with the aim of having the ccTLD managed in Mauritius for the benefit of the community. The .MU ccTLD has been managed by Internet Direct since 1995, when the authority to manage .MU was delegated by John Postel.
The government is proposing 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.
As part of this exercise, the government released a consultation paper in March that 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 March 2007, with the transition in mind, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) invited comments from the public for the definition of new arrangements to be put in place to ensure a smooth transition.
More information on the consultation and the consultation paper are available from:
www.icta.mu/mediaoffice/2007/dotmu.htm