The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has recently issued a policy change that was communicated via a Public Notice dated 31st January, 2020 concerning the enforcement of the ‘.tz’ domain for all business, companies, governmental and non-governmental organisations that are registered and operating in Tanzania.
TCRA has the role of regulating and maintaining all electronic communications countrywide and overseeing the management of the ‘dot tz country code Top Level Domain (‘hereinafter .tz ccTLD’). Regulation 10 of the Electronic and Postal Communication Numbering and Addressing Regulations (Government Notice No. 62; issued 23rd February 2018) provides that all entities registered and conducting business in Tanzania shall register and use domain names with .tz ccTLD.
The notice stated that this requirement is in order to comply with regulatory requirements and to contribute to national revenue. It is believed that this regulation will help to build trust with local consumers, help prevent the mistrust often associated with free emails in the region (i.e. google) and also allow for the TCRA to better gather statistics and decipher trends of Tanzanian entities in cyberspace.
Previous similar notices have been issued in 2016 and again in 2018. No previous notices have clarified a deadline for conversion. Therefore, we are recommending that businesses owning a .com, .net, .org or any other domain ending should convert immediately, as this most recent notification is likely to be an indicator that TCRA Authorities will begin following up on the compliance of this Regulation. The TCRA have stipulated that failure to register and use .tz is an offence and may attract a fine and/or imprisonment.
Please get in touch for more information on this regulation and to find out if it applies to your business, or visit our ICT category page for Tanzania.
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