Overview
- .bv is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Bouvet Island, a Norwegian dependent territory.
- The domain was delegated to the Norwegian registry Norid and is reserved for entities connected with Bouvet Island.
- .bv is not in active public use; Norwegian policy considers the .no domain sufficient for institutions connected to Bouvet Island.
History
- Delegated on 21 August 1997 alongside .sj (Svalbard and Jan Mayen).
- Registry and manager: Norid (UNINETT Norid A/S), which also manages .no and .sj.
- Sponsorship/oversight: Norwegian Communications Authority and regulations under the Norwegian Telecommunication Act.
- Norid and the Norwegian authorities have maintained a policy of not commercializing the .bv resource; the domain remains reserved.
Usage and audience
- Intended audience: entities connected with Bouvet Island (per ISO country-code assignment).
- Actual use: none — the domain is not open for registration and remains unused in practice.
- Potential audiences discussed in policy debates:
- Dutch businesses ("bv" is the common abbreviation for a Dutch limited company), which prompted study of possible Dutch-market use.
- Proposals to use .bv (and .sj) as online "free havens" to protect against surveillance were made politically in 2015.
Registration rules
- Registrations: No registrations are being taken for .bv; the domain is not open for public registration.
- Restrictions: Norwegian policy explicitly states .no is sufficient for relevant institutions and that .bv will not be commercialized.
- Future use: Should .bv be opened later, it would be regulated under the same Domain Regulation and procedures that apply to .no.
- Dispute policy: None specified for .bv while it remains unused.
SEO and brand impact
- Because .bv is reserved and unused, it has no active presence or SEO profile in search engines.
- Discussions in Norway noted potential commercial or branding value (notably for Dutch "BV" companies), but government policy has prevented commercialization, limiting any brand adoption.
- Proposals to position .bv as a privacy- or freedom-oriented namespace were made, but not implemented.
Notable cases or examples
- 2012–2016: Norid entered an initial collaboration with the Dutch registry SIDN to study possible use of .bv on the Dutch market; the collaboration ended in June 2016 when the Norwegian Ministry advised against dispensing with parts of the Domain Regulations that would have enabled sale or commercialization.
- June 2015: A proposal by Håkon Wium Lie and the Socialist Left Party suggested using .bv (and .sj) as online free havens to protect against surveillance.
- Norid's stated position (updated in official pages) is that it will not sell or give away .bv; as noted in registry statements, any change would require careful evaluation and consequence analysis.
Operator
Norid A/S
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: BV
organisation: Norid A/S
address: Abelsgate 5
address: Trondheim N-7465
address: Norway
contact: administrative
name: Hilde Thunem
organisation: Norid A/S
address: Postboks 4769 Torgarden
address: Trondheim NO-7465
address: Norway
phone: +47 73 55 73 55
e-mail: hilde.thunem@norid.no
contact: technical
name: Jarle Greipsland
organisation: Norid A/S
address: Postboks 4769 Torgarden
address: Trondheim NO-7465
address: Norway
phone: +47 73 55 73 55
e-mail: jarle@norid.no
nserver: NAC.NO 128.39.2.22 2001:700:0:102:0:0:0:aa53
nserver: NN.UNINETT.NO 158.38.0.181 2001:700:0:503:0:0:aa:5302
nserver: SERVER.NORDU.NET 193.10.252.19 2001:948:4:2:0:0:0:19
nserver: X.NIC.NO 128.39.8.40 2001:700:0:412f:0:0:0:40
nserver: Y.NIC.NO 193.75.4.22 2001:8c0:8200:1:0:0:0:2
nserver: Z.NIC.NO 158.38.8.133 2001:700:0:52d:158:38:8:133
ds-rdata: 33800 13 2 5fa7fb1c36c810cbbeea4557ce1b96175fb14b5e5f400a9d7aa36ba6b60fbd0e
whois:
status: ACTIVE
remarks: Registration information:
remarks: https://www.norid.no/en/omnorid/toppdomenet-bv/
created: 1997-08-21
changed: 2022-01-14
source: IANA
