The Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) is pleased to welcome its newest member, Latin American and Caribbean Top Level Domains (LACTLD), which officially became a member of the CTU on 27th March 2020. Incorporated in 2004, LACTLD is a nonprofit association which promotes an Internet that contributes to economic and social development by using domain names.
Its core target group comprises administrators of the region’s country code top level domains (ccTLDs). Currently LACTLD has 45 members and acts as a vehicle for cooperation and information sharing among the region’s ccTLD administrators.
You are probably wondering “what is a country code Top Level Domain (TLD)?”. According to www.moz.com, ‘a country code (cc)TLD shows users and search engines in what country, or territory a website is registered. ccTLDs are the single strongest way to show search engines and users that site content is specifically targeted to a certain country or region.’
An example of a ccTLD is www.example.tt. The ‘tt’ signifies that this website is registered in Trinidad and Tobago. ccTLDs are an alternative to generic TLDs e.g, .com or .org or .net.
The CTU, having transformed itself into a multi-stakeholder ICT organization, works collaboratively with governments, specialised governmental agencies, the private sector and civil society. The CTU provides enlightened leadership in the formulation of regional policy, capacity building, promoting ICT for national and regional development, coordinating regional ICT projects and representation of the region at international ICT fora.
Welcoming this new member, the Secretary General of the CTU, Ms. Bernadette Lewis stated, “we are excited that LACTLD has joined our family as it affords access to regional expertise and services in the areas of domain name system (DNS) operations, capacity building, technical working groups and technology updates. We are looking forward to forging a mutually beneficial relationship with LACTLD.”
