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    • .by

    Country-code top-level domainsDNSSEC

    Overview

    • .by is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Belarus.
    • The code originates from the ISO code for Byelorussia, the country's former name.
    • The ccTLD was created on 10 May 1994 and supports DNSSEC.

    History

    • Introduced: 10 May 1994.
    • Initial technical administrator: Open Contact Ltd.
    • Delegation and administrative history (selected milestones):
      • 1999: Management transferred to the State Centre of Security Information of Belarus.
      • 2008: The Operational and Analytical Centre (OAC) replaced the prior state centre and assumed responsibilities.
      • 2009: Management was transferred back to Open Contact Ltd., with OAC as administrative contact.
      • 2010–2012: OAC conducted a competition; by results Reliable Software Inc. (hoster.by) was selected as technical administrator and ICANN approved the redelegation in 2012.
      • 2015: The Cyrillic IDN ccTLD .бел for Belarus was approved by ICANN.
      • 2022: OAC appointed Belarusian Cloud Technologies LLC (beCloud) as the new technical administrator, effective 1 January 2022.
    • Registered domains: 143,412 (data reported 2022-08-19).

    Usage and Audience

    • Intended for entities connected with Belarus, but second-level registrations are available to anyone; non-residents may register second-level .by names.
    • Actual use:
      • Popular within Belarus.
      • Used as a domain hack and by institutions in the German state of Bavaria (e.g., bayern.by).
      • Also used by some Norwegian local news sites (e.g., osl.by, trd.by) because "by" means "town/city" in Norwegian.

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility and general rules:

      • Second-level registrations (example: something.by) are available to anyone; third-level domains under some second-level labels have specific restrictions.
      • Third-level labels such as .gov.by and .mil.by are reserved for government use only.
      • Names must not conflict with already registered names or well-known brand names; names deemed vulgar or illegal may be rejected.
      • Registrars conclude registration agreements with applicants; registrars handle execution for Belarusian entities directly and may require arrangements for foreign applicants.

    • Character and length rules:

      • Domain names must contain at least 2 and no more than 63 characters.
      • Allowed characters: Latin letters, numbers, hyphen (-) and other symbols as stated in the registry instructions.
      • A name must not begin or end with a hyphen, and it must not contain hyphens in both the 3rd and 4th positions simultaneously.

    • Periods, fees and technical details:

      • Registration and renewal occur yearly; the maximum upfront payment is one year.
      • Reported costs (as of sources): approximately US$12 for the first year and US$12 for renewal (pricing and payment methods depend on registrar and have varied over time).
      • Payment methods vary by registrar and may include bank transfer, WebMoney, credit card, or cash.
      • WHOIS service and DNSSEC are supported by the registry.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Bavaria: Used by Bavarian institutions (example: bayern.by for the Bavarian Tourism Agency) as a recognizable regional domain hack.
    • Norway: Some local newspapers use .by (osl.by, trd.by) because "by" means "town/city" in Norwegian.
    • IDN: The Cyrillic ccTLD .бел was applied for and approved in 2015 for use with Cyrillic-script domains.

    Operator

    Belarusian Cloud Technologies LLC

    Whois

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

domain:       BY

organisation: Belarusian Cloud Technologies LLC
address:      C. Zetkin str. 24, office 602
address:      Minsk 220004
address:      Belarus

contact:      administrative
name:         Head of Sector
organisation: The Operational and Analytical Center under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus
address:      49 Kirova Str.
address:      Minsk 220030
address:      Belarus
phone:        +375 17 3092473
fax-no:       +375 17 3636824
e-mail:       admin-c@oac.gov.by

contact:      technical
name:         General Director
organisation: Belarusian Cloud Technologies LLC
address:      C. Zetkin Str. 24, office 602
address:      Minsk 220004
address:      Belarus
phone:        +375 17 287 11 34
fax-no:       +375 17 287 11 01
e-mail:       info@cctld.by

nserver:      DNS1.TLD.BECLOUDBY.COM 2a00:c827:a:2:0:0:0:2 93.125.25.72
nserver:      DNS2.TLD.BECLOUDBY.TECH 2a00:c827:a:3:0:0:0:2 93.125.25.73
nserver:      DNS3.TLD.BECLOUDBY.TECH 185.98.83.4 2a01:ba80:e:c:1:0:0:4c
nserver:      DNS4.TLD.BECLOUDBY.TECH 2a0e:b81:8001:1001:0:0:0:2 31.44.1.137
nserver:      DNS7.TLD.BECLOUDBY.COM 31.44.5.245
ds-rdata:     495 13 2 2d14284f8e47b53f839bd8068d438680b4b6c7a645769c9d89b47df0c5359b7b

whois:        whois.cctld.by

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://cctld.by

created:      1994-05-10
changed:      2025-01-09
source:       IANA

    Registrars