The top-level domain (TLD) .xn—mgb9awbf is an internationalized country code top-level domain (ccTLD) regulated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), representing the Sultanate of Oman. The code “xn—mgb9awbf” is an ASCII compatible encoding (ACE) version of its Arabic script version “.عمان” following the Punycode transliteration system.
Punycode is a method specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the “Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)” (RFC 3492) to represent international characters into the limited ASCII character set permitted in domain names. Such ASCII-encoded domain names are used to support non-english languages and are predominantly seen as top-level domain identifiers on the internet.
In the case of .xn—mgb9awbf, as you can see on IANA’s Root Zone Database, this TLD is a Country Code TLD (ccTLD) assigned to Oman. As per their data, the TLD’s formal name is “Oman Telecommunications Company“—the entity responsible for registering domain names under this TLD. All internationalized country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLDs) use the “XN—” prefix which signals that the domain name includes characters encoded using Punycode (source: IANA’s Procedures for IDN ccTLD requests).
Country code TLDs are two-letter codes that are assigned to each country or territory in the world, pursuant to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes list. They were introduced to render domain infrastructure more accessible for non-English speaking populations, fostering better usability of the world wide web across diverse ethnolinguistic populations.
An example of a domain that could use the .xn—mgb9awbf TLD might include a local business in Oman which wishes to use Arabic script in its domain name. Businesses, organizations, or individuals interested in reaching Omani audiences through websites or web platforms can register for these domain extensions.
Though the usage of non-Latin domain extensions has grown over time, it is by no means common. With the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), it’s no longer necessary to only use the limited set of Latin-based characters for domain names and URLs. IANA and other international organizations have worked diligently to increase the accessibility and universality of the internet, thus encouraging domains to register using an IDN ccTLD like .xn—mgb9awbf.
(Sources: “Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)” RFC 3492 – IETF, IANA’s Root Zone Database, IANA’s Procedures for IDN ccTLD requests, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes)
