.pt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Introduced | 1988 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional |
| Sponsoring organization | Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional |
| Intended use | Entities connected with Portugal |
| Actual use | Very popular in Portugal |
| Registration restrictions | Various restrictions for different subdomains; .com.pt is unlimited |
| Structure | Registrations are taken directly at second level or at third level beneath some second-level labels |
| Documents | |
| Dispute policies | |
| Web site | dns.pt |
.pt is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Portugal and is managed by the Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional (FCCN). It has the following second-level domains:
- .com.pt: no restrictions; online registration
- .edu.pt: education
- .gov.pt: Government of Portugal
- .int.pt: international organizations or diplomatic missions in Portugal
- .net.pt: telecommunications providers
- .nome.pt: individuals (nome is Portuguese for name)
- .org.pt: Non-profit organizations
- .publ.pt: publications (e.g. newspapers)
Since July 1, 2005, special characters such as ç, é, õ have been supported in domain names.
Apart for .gov.pt, Portuguese subdomains were slow to catch on, because many people had already registered under .pt when the new ones became available. Many companies, colleges and people still prefer to use a .pt because these are harder to get (the chance of getting a spam link is very low) and simpler to remember. There are also inconsistencies: for example, the website of the Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) is not www.mne.gov.pt, but www.min-nestrangeiros.pt. However, the .com.pt subdomain is being heavily promoted by the registry, and now has a large number of registrations and active Web sites. Others such as .nome.pt for individuals are still very uncommon.
In the early years, FCCN tried to keep a strict control of the .pt domain using very specific rules. For example, proper nouns were not allowed to be registered. Nevertheless several domains, clearly violating the existing rules were registered (e.g.: sapo.pt, expresso.pt, publico.pt). These examples were used by lawyers to register any domain based on the principle of equal treatment. When the situation was out of control, FCCN tried to promote subdomains like com.pt. Nevertheless, since the registration directly under .pt was still available, users tended to prefer these.
