.om is the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 country code

Country code

Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...

 top-level domain

Top-level domain

A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...

 (ccTLD) for Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

.

Currently, OMnic only allows third level domain registration. However, there are a number of domains directly under .om including mediaphone.om, nawrastelecom.om, omanmobile.om, omanpost.om, omantel.om, rakpetroleum.om, siemens.om, songfest.om, statecouncil.om

If .om were to ever allow unrestricted second level domain registration, many forms of cybersquatting

Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...

would then be possible. For example, instead of yahoo.com, one could register "yahooc" under ".om" to create the typo yahooc.om.

Second-level domains

As of 11 May 2007, the following SLD's are listed in the rules at OMnic:

• .com.om – Commercial Company, trading company, registered at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Sultanate of Oman
• .co.om – Commercial Company, trading company, registered at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the sultanate of Oman
• .edu.om – Educational institutions, e.g., universities and colleges, registered at the Ministry of Higher Education of the Sultanate of Oman
• .ac.om – Academic Organization (e.g. university, college), registered at the Ministry of Higher Education of the Sultanate of Oman
• .sch.om – Elementary schools, secondary schools, and high schools with valid licenses from Ministry of Education
• .gov.om – Government Departments and Ministries of the Sultanate of Oman
• .net.om – Intended to hold only the computers of network providers that are the NIC and NOC computers, the administrative computers, and the network node computers, registered at the Ministry of Transportation and communications or registered at Oman Telecommunication Company.
• .org.om – Non-profit organizations, registered at Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour and Vocational Training
• .mil.om – Used by all Ministry of Defense establishments
• .museum.om – For Museums
• .biz.om – Commercial Company, trading company, registered at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Sultanate of Oman
• .pro.om – for Professionals, and Professional Associations.
• .med.om – Hospitals and medical clinics with valid licenses from Ministry of Health.

Second top-level domain

A second top-level domain will be used for Oman, intended for domain names in the local language, using Arabic characters. The string عمان. has been registered and approved for this purpose, but it is not active yet (April 2011) and lower lever domains have not been granted yet.

External links

• IANA .om whois information
• OMnic - .om domain name registration information
• OMnic Rules & Regulations