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    • .ao

    Country-code top-level domains

    Overview

    • .ao is the Internet country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Angola.
    • Introduced on November 15, 1995.
    • The registry is DNS.AO; the sponsoring organization is the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (MTTI).
    • Intended for entities connected with Angola; approximately 5,900 registered domains (March 2024).

    History

    • Originally administered by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Agostinho Neto.
    • From February 2000, Portugal's FCCN provided technical services for .ao; in May 2013 DNS.PT was created to take over technical services for .pt and other ccTLDs, including .ao. The IANA technical contact was updated to DNS.PT in October 2014.
    • On August 21, 2018, a decree approved transfer of management and operation of .ao to MTTI; MTTI initiated a transfer request to IANA on March 16, 2020.
    • On June 17, 2019, commercial registration was relaunched under DNS.AO:
      • A single approved registrar was authorised initially (Serviços Públicos Electrónicos do Governo de Angola).
      • Registration fee was reduced to 8,000 Angolan kwanzas per year.
      • By January 2020 about 2,500 new registrations had been received.
      • Registrations from outside Angola were not permitted at that time.
    • Under the older registry (pre-relaunch) registrations were primarily taken at the third level; historical pricing was listed as US$300 and non-Angolan entities were directed to the .it.ao subdomain.

    Usage and Audience

    • Targeted at organisations, businesses and individuals connected with Angola (governmental bodies, local companies, and Angolan projects).
    • Most usage is domestic; registration policies and the relaunch aimed to increase local adoption.
    • Domain structure is typically third-level beneath second-level labels, though some direct second-level registrations exist.

    Registration Rules

    • Sources indicate different emphases on eligibility:
      • The registry/wiki notes registrations are limited to registrants within Angola.
      • ICANNWiki states that anyone can request an available name, subject to validation.
    • Registration process details (per dns.ao/ICANNWiki):
      • Registration requests become definitive 96 hours after validation.
      • During the validation period a panel may review applications for conflicts with national interests, confusing similarity to trademarks, pejorative meanings, fraudulent trademark use, or abusive/bulk registrations not used to convey content.
      • Registrations are generally made at the third level under predefined second-level labels; some direct second-level registrations exist.
      • Fee after the 2019 relaunch: 8,000 kwanzas per year; an initial single government registrar was appointed for issuance.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Historical example: the Google Angola instance (google.it.ao) has been noted as an early/unique registration under the .it.ao subdomain during the older registry period.

    Operator

    Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (MTTI)

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       AO

organisation: Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (MTTI)
address:      Customs street, no. 10
address:      Luanda CP 1459
address:      Angola

contact:      administrative
name:         Mr. Andre Pedro (Eng.)
organisation: Institute of Development of Information Society (‘INFOSI’)
address:      Cidade Alta
address:      Luanda
address:      Angola
phone:        +244 927 217 021
e-mail:       andre.pedro@infosi.gov.ao

contact:      technical
name:         Marcos Damiao
organisation: INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE FOMENTO DA SOCIEDADE DA INFORMACAO-INFOSI
address:      Cidade Alta Luanda
address:      Luanda 1412
address:      Angola
phone:        +244927991964
fax-no:       (+244)927 991964
e-mail:       ao@dns.ao

nserver:      A.NS.AO 206.51.254.4 2620:171:804:ad2:0:0:0:4
nserver:      AO-E.NS.NIC.CZ 185.43.134.13 2001:148f:fffd:0:0:0:0:13
nserver:      AO02.DNS.PT 185.39.208.29 2a04:6d80:0:0:0:0:0:29
nserver:      ETLD-1.ANYCAST.NET 2607:f740:45:0:0:0:0:54 45.54.45.54

whois:        

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.dns.ao/

created:      1995-11-15
changed:      2024-09-09
source:       IANA

    Registrars