The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has turned down Bulgaria’s proposal for a domain name in Cyrillic with a “бг” suffix.

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications said it has been informed about the decision late on Tuesday with a letter, which cites the similarity with Brazil’s domain name with a “br“ suffix as the reason for the rejection.

The news does not come as a surprise since the proposed domain name was harshly criticized in Bulgaria long before it was submitted for approval by ICANN with opponents, saying it resembles too much Brazil’s domain name.

Bulgaria’s transport ministry is to launch a new survey among Bulgarians in a bid to find the best alternative domain name that the country can offer. The first poll launched a few months ago showed the second most preferred name to be with a “бгр” suffix.

At the beginning of May three Mideast countries and Russia became the first to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.

Domain names in Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were added to the Internet’s master directories, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. A suffix for Russia in Cyrillic was also added to the list shortly afterward.

ICANN said it has received a total of 21 requests for such domains representing 11 languages since it began accepting applications in November.

This is the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

source: novinite.com