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    • .so

    Country-code top-level domains

    Overview

    .so is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Somalia. First created on 28 August 1997, it is intended for entities connected with Somalia and is managed by Somali authorities and the Somali Network Information Center (SONIC).

    History

    • 28 August 1997: .so domain record created.
    • Late 1990s: Operations were delegated to Monolith Innovations (ml.org); Monolith later ceased operations and remained a defunct delegate for a period.
    • 3 February 2009: ICANN approved redelegation of .so to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Somalia.
    • 1 November 2010: .so was officially relaunched by .SO Registry and made available through accredited registrars.
    • 11 July 2013: ISO 3166-1 related code for Somalia updated to reflect the SO code used by the ccTLD.
    • 8 July 2015: Registry operations transferred to the Somali Network Information Center (SONIC); new limitations were introduced restricting registrations by entities not affiliated with Somalia, leading several registrars to suspend new .so registrations.
    • 9 March 2018: Somalia's National Communications Authority (NCA) took full control of the .so domain from SONIC and Cloudy Registry.
    • Following the 2018 transfer, Somaliland banned the use of the .so TLD within its territory.

    Usage and Audience

    • Intended audience: institutions and organizations in Somalia, residents of Somalia, and others with a legitimate, clear and provable connection to Somalia.
    • Typical use: general-purpose registrations at the second level and specialized third-level namespaces for commercial, personal, network, and non-profit uses.
    • Namespace examples: .com.so (commercial), .me.so (personal), .net.so (network/internet entities), .org.so (not-for-profit), plus government, education and subnational state spaces.

    Registration Rules

    • Nexus requirement: registrants must warrant a bona fide connection to Somalia, including being a Somali institution, resident, or having a legitimate, provable connection to Somalia.
    • Acceptable use warranties: applicants must warrant that registration will not infringe third-party rights, will not be used for unlawful purposes (including indecency, pornography, gambling), offensive purposes, or to mislead the public.
    • Technical and syntax requirements:
      • Allowed characters: letters a-z (case insensitive) and digits 0-9 only.
      • Hyphen rules: cannot begin or end with a hyphen; cannot have two consecutive hyphens in the 3rd and 4th positions.
      • No underline characters allowed.
      • Length: minimum 3 characters, maximum 63 characters (excluding the TLD).
    • Structure and namespaces:
      • Second-level registrations are available under .so for general use.
      • Common third-level namespaces: .com.so, .me.so, .net.so, .org.so.
      • Other SLDs: .edu.so (higher education), .gov.so (government), .sch.so (schools).
      • State-level SLDs: .gm.so (Galmudug), .hs.so (Hirshabelle), .jl.so (Jubaland), .pl.so (Puntland), .sw.so (South West).
    • Dispute policy: a domain name registration policy and dispute framework exist (policies maintained by SONIC).

    Registrars

    • Registrations are available via officially accredited local and international registrars listed and maintained by SONIC.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Early delegation to Monolith Innovations (ml.org) in the 1990s, followed by Monolith's operational collapse and a prolonged period of inconsistent DNS availability.
    • Redelegation and relaunch activity: ICANN redelegation in 2009 and relaunch in 2010.
    • Transfer to SONIC in 2015 introduced nexus-based restrictions that caused several registrars to suspend new .so registrations.
    • 2018 transfer of control to Somalia's National Communications Authority (NCA), and the subsequent ban on .so use by Somaliland.

    Operator

    Ministry of Post and Telecommunications

    Whois

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

domain:       SO

organisation: Ministry of Post and Telecommunications

contact:      administrative
name:         Administrator
organisation: Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
phone:        +252 1 587 1200
fax-no:       +252 1 231 599
e-mail:       admin@mipt.gov.so

contact:      technical
name:         Tech Manager
organisation: soNIC
address:      Via Republic
address:      Mogadishu Benadir 1000
address:      Somalia
phone:        +252 61 8250888
fax-no:       +252 61 8250991
e-mail:       admin@sonic.gov.so

nserver:      D.NIC.SO 196.216.168.54 2001:43f8:120:0:0:0:0:54
nserver:      E.NIC.SO 2001:500:14:6101:ad:0:0:1 204.61.216.101

whois:        whois.nic.so

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.so/

created:      1997-08-28
changed:      2016-04-18
source:       IANA

    Registrars