Amazon beats ICANN on .Amazon gTLD following DCA Trust’s precedent setting case in .Africa IRP!

Amazon.com has become the latest winner in the ICANN Independent Review Process IRP. Amazon was one of the largest applicants for new domain names, but its .brand strategy was slowed down when governments opposed its .amazon application. Amazon’s applications had been rejected three years ago after ICANN accepted Governmental Advisory Committee consensus advice.  That advice, …

.Africa Founder Sophia Bekele Named Industry Trailblazer & Internet Governance Pioneer, by CIO

“Inspired to set up DotConnectAfrica, as its name aimes, to Connect Africa through a Single Pan-African domain name“ The CIO East Africa, an influential IT, Business and Leadership News Magazine talked to Sophia Bekele about her journey, taking stock of a decade of professional activities and achievements to date, in the ICT and DNS Industry, …

NIRA laments the poor adoption of the Nigerian ccTLD .Ng

Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa with a population of over 180 million. One would expect that the netizens of nigeria would prefer .ng over .com. However, only 80,000 internet users adopted Nigeria’s top level domain, NIRA official laments. According to premiumtimesng.com, Sunday Folayan, President of the association, noted that only 80,000 dotng …

.Africa Domain to be delegated pending DCA Trust Vs ICANN Court Hearing on Merits

ICANN has announced that it is free to delegate the .Africa domain to ZACR pending the court case resolution. This action mirrors its signing of a contract in the middle of an Independent Accountability Hearing (IRP) that ICANN initiated. This step was taken by ICANN after a recent California court decision to deny DotConnectAfrica’s Motion …

.Africa: California Judge Reverses Tentative Ruling on Technicality, Case set for second hearing

The continuing case of African nonprofit DotConnectAfrica’s vs ICANN for the .Africa domain is set for another hearing January 31, 2017  after DCA filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order (“TRO “) PDF motion. On Thursday December 22, 2016, the Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Howard L. Halm issued a written tentative …

African government’s shutdowns stifling Internet expansion

A Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) Report has blamed the slow pace of Internet growth in Africa on some activities embarked upon by the various governments. The report, with focus on digital rights in Africa, titled: “Choking The Pipe: How Governments Hurt Internet Freedom On A Continent That Needs More Access,” identified among others, some policy inconsistencies …