As the likely administrator of the new .africa generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has embarked on an awareness programme targeting Africa’s best known brands.

The .africa Pioneer Programme aims to encourage a premier set of early adopters to lend their support to Africa’s new space on the web. “We’re encouraging African movers and shakers in the arts, commerce, government and other sectors to sign up for the .africa Pioneer Programme which will entitle them to certain rights and rewards relating to the proposed .africa gTLD,” said Octavia Kumalo, PR & Marketing head For the dotAfrica project.

By lending their support to the call for African brands to register their .africa domains when they become available later this year, Pioneer Programme participants will potentially have their desired .africa domain name placed on a Reserve Name List. Once the name is delegated they will have first rights to it.

“As with everything, certain rights bring certain responsibilities. The .africa Pioneer will be required to actively use the .africa domain name and they will also be required to make use of the “I support .africa logo” across their different marketing platforms,” explained Ms Kumalo.

She further explained that .africa is the new Top Level Domain (TLD) for the African continent and it is fully endorsed by the African Union (AU) and has widespread support across the continent. African governments, the business sector, civil society and the technical community are all supporting the drive for Africa’s own space on the web, and in particular, for this space to be managed by the ZACR. It is important to note that a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee from across the African continent leads the ZACR .africa initiative.

“The ZACR bid for .africa is easily one of the leading examples of pan-African cooperation ever witnessed,” said Ms Kumalo.

The .africa TLD application is still with ICANN undergoing assessments with a further evaluation milestone will hopefully set to be chalked up on 15 May 2013. The delegation of the new gTLDs is planned for the third quarter of this year – subsequently the .africa TLD will be available for launch and registration.

The .africa TLD will be launched in two phases, namely: Sunrise and Landrush. During the Sunrise phase, trademark and brand names will be given priority for sales. Thereafter, the open delegation or landrush phase will commence. Trademark holders, such as the envisaged participants in the ZACR Pioneer Programme, will need to register their trademarks with the Trademark Clearing House or through the Mark Validation System (MVS).

The latter is a ZACR initiative modeled on the Trademark Clearing House which will be used to validate African trademark holders and have the advantage of much lower fees.

The above will ensure that .africa Registry Operators sell .africa domains to the rightful intellectual property holders.

source: itnewsafrica.com

New Study from Internet Society and Analysys Mason Examines Factors Hindering Development of Internet Access in Africa

Research explores impact of telecom infrastructure investments and corresponding improvements to Internet access and service

WASHINGTON & GENEVA --

The Internet Society published a new study, ‘Lifting barriers to Internet development in Africa: suggestions for improving connectivity,’ which examines the factors hindering Internet development in Africa and explores possible remedies.

The research, conducted by Analysys Mason and commissioned by the Internet Society, found that despite investments resulting in significant improvements to Africa’s telecom infrastructure in the past five years, these investments have in some cases not translated into lowered prices or increased quality of services for Internet users. These investments have focused on undersea cable to improve international connectivity and terrestrial fibre networks between countries.

The study shows that in many countries the development of Internet access is hampered by constraints on terrestrial connectivity between the submarine cables, the Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), last mile access infrastructures, and Internet Service Providers that deliver access to end-users in Africa. The report sets forth an Internet development approach focused on removing regulatory roadblocks and promoting Internet-specific investments, supported by a high-level policy environment to result in greater Internet availability and empowerment in Africa.

“This study is significant as it identifies some of the last barriers for the development of Internet infrastructure in Africa,” noted Dawit Bekele, Regional Bureau Director for Africa, Internet Society. “It pinpoints the issues that all stakeholders and more particularly African governments and telecommunication regulators need to address to ensure that the massive infrastructural development that we have seen in Africa in the last few years results in bringing Internet to all Africans at an affordable price.”

Jane Coffin, Director for Development Strategy at the Internet Society, added, “We hope that this study will spark a national and regional debate in Africa that impacts future Internet development. There is so much that stakeholders can do to close infrastructure gaps by working together through creative public-private partnerships and by taking bold steps to allow change to happen by breaking down traditional barriers and allowing market entrants greater ease in network deployment.”

“For us, the variation between regions in retail price of Internet traffic was revealing, with some ISPs offering access at USD 10 per gigabyte of traffic, and others charging up to ten times more than that. East Africa appears to offer best value, particularly for low-volume users who tend to have lower incomes,” commented one of the report’s authors, Robert Schumann.

Michael Kende, Partner at Analysys Mason, noted that in many countries, the regulatory reform of the telecoms sector is not yet complete. “African Internet ecosystems grow strongest when a wide range of operators can offer service and exchange traffic, but in many countries regulatory and practical barriers remain to private investment.”

This new report follows an Analysys Mason study commissioned by the Internet Society on the impact of IXPs in Kenya and Nigeria, which found that IXPs improve the quality of Internet services and save African operators millions of dollars annually in connectivity fees. The IXP study shows that a key factor in the success of IXPs is the availability of low-cost, widely-accessible connectivity, both domestically and across borders and oceans, and the study was commissioned to help address those gaps.

The study is available for download: www.internetsociety.org/liftingbarriers