The top-level domain (TLD) .BY is the internet country code for the Republic of Belarus. It is administered by the Operations and Analysis Center under the President of the Republic of Belarus (OAC). A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS) of the internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space.
Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .BY represent specific geographical locations. These two-letter codes are derived from ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. The ccTLD .BY follows the standard representation of the Republic of Belarus as per the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 code (“BY”) (source: ISO).
As per ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) records, .BY was created in August 1994. An interesting fact about it is that the domain was initially intended to be used for the by-name of the internet hosts in order to demonstrate their belonging to Belarus (source: ICANN).
In terms of subdomains, there is also a second level domain .бел, which is the punycode transcription of Cyrillic for Belarus. It was introduced in 2015 and now businesses and individuals, not only in Belarus, can create bilingual websites адрес.бел (source: Belarus.by).
Locations within Belarus can also get geographic domain names like .minsk.by, .brest.by, .grodno.by, etc. or regional subdomains can be registered for free, sourced directly from the authoritative DNS for .BY.
Moreover, certain restrictions apply to the registration of these TLDs. For the .BY domain, a local presence or representative is not required and there is no restriction on the nationality of the domain holder (source: NIC.BY). For the Cyrillic .бел, it is also unrestricted, and foreign companies, organizations, and individuals can register it (source: Belarus.by).
To register a .BY domain, interested parties must go through a registration process with an accredited registrar such as Active Cloud, Hoster.by, or Open Contact Ltd. (source: NIC.BY). The registration process includes verifying the availability of the desired domain name, providing necessary identification and contact information, and payment of the registration fee.
In summary, the .BY TLD is an important digital representation of the Republic of Belarus. It holds significance in the world of DNS, allowing users to easily identify the geographical location of a website, while also demonstrating their hyperlink to the Eastern European country. With both Latin and Cyrillic TLDs, it provides flexibility and availability to Internet users interested in creating a virtual presence within the Belarus digital space.
