The country's registered domain hosting businessmen have urged the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) not to engage as a domain registrar to ensure a level playing field in the retail business.
To promote the dotBD domain and encourage the use of dotBangla, they also urged the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to address the price discrimination against the private resellers.
To address potential price discrimination, the BTRC, acting as a registrar for BTCL in retail sales, said they plan to set a floor price.
The issues, including the draft guidelines for reseller enlistment, were discussed at a meeting held at the BTRC conference centre at Agargaon in the city on Sunday. Around 20 representatives from the domain and hosting business sector attended the meeting.
Brigadier General Mostafizur Rahman, Director General of BTRC's Engineering and Operations Department, stated that the BTCL is now struggling to sell domains due to inadequate services and emphasised the need for branding dotBD as a soft power CTLD.
He also mentioned that the BTCL has been instructed to integrate dotBD's root architecture as the server host for the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) root zone, ensuring redundancy and backup for cyber security.
Dr. Shamsuzzoha, Deputy Director of the BTRC, noted that there are certain challenges for second-layer CCTLDs in all countries, including legal obligations in the Bangladeshi market.
These regulations will apply both domestically and internationally, with online verification being implemented to facilitate cross-checking and automation.
Hosting merchants must register with the BTRC as organisations, and BTCL will be assigned a selling slot for both retail and wholesale business.
Anyone collecting payment from customers must possess a BIN and pay VAT.
Imran Hossain of E-Y Host Management highlighted that while the government benefits from VAT, price sensitivity is crucial to increasing global recognition of the dotBD domain.
He argued against double VAT on domains, calling for reduced wholesale prices and costs, and suggested a retail price of Tk 800.
According to the draft guidelines, registrars will be required to pay a total of Tk 410,000 over the first three years, including a security deposit of Tk 200,000.
After this period, a fee of Tk 100,000 will be required every two years. This would result in a cost of approximately Tk 1,300 per domain for dotBD and dotBangla. Traders believe this price is comparable to top-level domains and should be reduced further.
The country is losing a significant amount of foreign exchange annually due to the prevalence of dotcom domains.
In response, the BTRC has focused on promoting the use of the dotBD domain to enhance the country's branding and encourage the use of dotBangla to promote the Bengali language globally.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
