Dot Bangla Domain: Digitalising Bangla

February, the month of language for Bangla speakers, has started with the excellent news of the allotment of Bangladesh’s own Unicode domain, ‘dot bangla’ (.bangla). It is considered a technological advancement for Bangla as it will allow Bangladeshis to write websites using fonts of their own mother tongue.    

Since subscription to ‘dot bangla’ opened for private organisations and individuals on February 1, many internet users have already registered to buy the domain for their own websites or for their organisations.
“We are getting good response from the customers. We have received more than 4,000 applications for dot bangla domain registration. After checking and verifying user information, we have given more than 800 connections so far and process for more is going on,” said Meer Mohammad Morshed, director (public relations and publication) of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL).
As a promotion of .bangla, visitors at Ekushey Boi Mela can get registration from stall no 50 of BTCL at the Bangla Academy ground. Apart from that, customers can apply for the domain at bdia.btcl.com.bd, where they have to provide the required information, along with mobile numbers or email addresses for verification. They can also pay the necessary fees through mobile operator Teletalk. Besides that, one can go directly to the BTCL office for registration. 
State-owned BTCL, the assigned organisation to handle the domain, is selling subscription on first come, first serve basis. Morshed said anyone would be able to register for the domain by paying a fee of TK 500 for one year, but first-time subscribers must register for at least two years. 
“We have already sent letters to government bodies to get the domain. Those who have .bd domain, they also can get .bangla. On January 1, the first part of registration was started only for specific organisations, while it fully opened on February 1 for the public,” Morshed added.
According to BTCL, total users of .bd are 36,500 till date. Besides the service of dot bangla and dot bd domains, BTCL is also going to provide some related services like hosting websites, name servers, mail services and others.
Dot bangla is a worldwide authorised system by which internet users can directly register and browse their desired websites in Bangla. For this Unicode, one must install Bangla font in their devices like tabs or laptops. Before Bangladesh got permission to use .bangla domain, it was not possible to write websites in Bangla. 
On October 4, 2016, Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) allotted the domain code dot bangla to Bangladesh. It is a symbol of self-identification for speakers of the Bangla language. The domain was inaugurated officially on December 31, 2016. It is the second country code top-level domain (TLD) for Bangla websites. Earlier, ICANN approved existing domain dot bd (.bd). 

Dot Bangla Domain: Digitalising Bangla

February, the month of language for Bangla speakers, has started with the excellent news of the allotment of Bangladeshs own Unicode domain, dot bangla (.bangla). It is considered a technological advancement for Bangla as it will allow Bangladeshis to write websites using fonts of their own mother tongue. Since subscription to dot bangla opened for private organisations and individuals on February 1, many internet users have already registered to buy the domain for their own websites or for their organisations. We are getting good response from the customers. We have received more than 4,000 applications for dot bangla domain registration. After checking and verifying user information, we have given more than 800 connections so far and process for more is going on, said Meer Mohammad Morshed, director (public relations and publication) of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL). As a promotion of .bangla, visitors at Ekushey Boi Mela can get registration from stall no 50 of BTCL at the Bangla Academy ground. Apart from that, customers can apply for the domain at bdia.btcl.com.bd, where they have to provide the required information, along with mobile numbers or email addresses for verification. They can also pay the necessary fees through mobile operator Teletalk. Besides that, one can go directly to the BTCL office for registration. State-owned BTCL, the assigned organisation to handle the domain, is selling subscription on first come, first serve basis. Morshed said anyone would be able to register for the domain by paying a fee of TK 500 for one year, but first-time subscribers must register for at least two years. We have already sent letters to government bodies to get the domain. Those who have .bd domain, they also can get .bangla. On January 1, the first part of registration was started only for specific organisations, while it fully opened on February 1 for the public, Morshed added. According to BTCL, total users of .bd are 36,500 till date. Besides the service of dot bangla and dot bd domains, BTCL is also going to provide some related services like hosting websites, name servers, mail services and others. Dot bangla is a worldwide authorised system by which internet users can directly register and browse their desired websites in Bangla. For this Unicode, one must install Bangla font in their devices like tabs or laptops. Before Bangladesh got permission to use .bangla domain, it was not possible to write websites in Bangla. On October 4, 2016, Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) allotted the domain code dot bangla to Bangladesh. It is a symbol of self-identification for speakers of the Bangla language. The domain was inaugurated officially on December 31, 2016. It is the second country code top-level domain (TLD) for Bangla websites. Earlier, ICANN approved existing domain dot bd (.bd).