'Commission' Holds a Virtual Workshop on Application Requirements for the Saudi Domain Names Registrar Agency

The Communications and Information Technology Commission held, today, Wednesday, a virtual workshop on the requirements for applying to be accredited as a registrar agent for Saudi domain names, attended by a number of entities holding an internet service provider license or registered as cloud computing service providers that meet the eligibility conditions for applying during the first phase.

During the workshop, Eng. Hisham Al-Hammad, Director of Saudi Domain Names Management at the Commission, reviewed the importance of domain names in general and their advantages, and the role of the "Communications and Information Technology Commission" in managing Saudi domain names and preparing and developing the necessary rules and regulations for registering Saudi domain names, providing registration services, and managing their infrastructure.

Al-Hammad also gave a statistical overview of the number of Saudi domain names registered in the Kingdom, which exceeds 60,000 domain names with an annual growth rate reaching 10%, and pointed to the most important achievements made during the past period, represented in reaching a high degree of security and reliability at the global level, achieving first place globally in the percentage of queries via the secure extension across operators' networks, and activating and making the secure extension (DNSSEC) available to the end user as the first country in the Middle East, in addition to leadership in supporting the Arabic language in domain names and email.

During the workshop, light was also shed on the objectives the Commission seeks to achieve by applying the registrar agents model, including creating national companies specialized in domain name management, encouraging innovation and creativity in Saudi domain names, localizing specialized expertise, in addition to enhancing the information technology sector's contribution to GDP, and other goals and aspirations. The roles and tasks assigned to both the registry center and the registrar agent were also reviewed, along with the most prominent aspects of the registrar agent regulations, and the requirements for applying for the first phase of the request for accreditation as a registrar agent for Saudi domain names, and a statement of the mechanisms and procedures followed in this regard, and questions and inquiries about application requirements and accreditation procedures were also answered.

The "Communications and Information Technology Commission" had previously launched the first phase for applying for accreditation as a registrar agent for Saudi domain names (.السعودية, .SA), where the door for applications was opened to the private sector to obtain official accreditation to provide Saudi domain name registration services, after fulfilling the regulatory requirements shown on the website (https://wakeel.nic.sa/).