Kyrgyzstan: No Rest For the Internet · Global Voices
Elena Skochilo

The head of the State Patent Department [en] Ulan Melisbek told [ru] that this department will try to take control of the service registration of domain names in the .kg zone.
Ulan Melisbek is sure that the .kg zone represents the national interests, and its administration should be under state control, rather than a private company. Currently, the right of registration of domain names in .kg zone belongs to the private company “AsiaInfo” [ru].
AsiaInfo appeared at the right time in the right place, when our government didn't understand well the role of the Internet, and had no relevant experts. AsiaInfo managed to get the right to administer .kg zone. Kg and turned it into a business. National .kg zone shouldn't belong to the private company. It should be under the supervision of the state, Ulan Melisbek said.
What are the Internet users saying?
As usual, forum users were the first who reacted to this news. The topic has quickly grown to 13 pages [ru], there were involved about 60 users in a discussion.
The creation of the integrated register of domains, and the attraction to the domain service the various organizations – this is good! And if Ulan Melisbek begins to maintain badly, our task will be to explain to him how to do it properly,  user praktikant suggested [ru].
Some users consider the initiative of the Patent Department will bring the corruption into the domain name registration service.
And what about the increase of the level of Kyrgyzstan and a struggle with corruption? If the state has the right to register and control the domain names, it will only develop the corruption, user Crazyman told [ru].
A number of the forum users would agree with Ulan Melisbek. They consider that the company-domain-registrar shouldn’t be a monopolist. If the company didn’t have the exclusive right to register the domain names, it would help to develop competition and decreasing of the prices.
I think, Ulan Melisbek is right. AsiaInfo has the great incomes from the registration and support of the domain names. Because of the high prices, our local Internet content doesn’t develop quickly. Firstly, I would deprive the exclusive right in this area. Only the honest competition can bring the prices decrease for the registration and support of the domain names. The state should have only the regulative functions, but not the prohibitive. IMHO, regulation of the registration and support of the domain names in .kg zone will help to organize the .kg zone. I consider that Ulan Melisbek won’t control the Internet-content. I think he is sure that it is impossible. Only some dumb politics still want to try to control the internet content with the help of the state, user Tarantino considered [ru].
Opinions of the professionals
Aleksey Bebinov, the coordinator of the IT-projects of the “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy” supposes that the change of the company-registrar won’t give any positive results. Moreover, such initiative can affect to the quantity of the domain names in .kg zone. Aleksey Bebinov also doubts that the state structure as the registrar of the domain names will be the objective and unbiased in the domain name politics.
There will always be a risk of the state pressure, even if the head of the Patent Department will be equitable towards the clients. I doubt that the Patent Department has enough specialists to support and serve the root servers of .kg zone. Besides, I am sure they won’t decrease the prices significantly. The present price is an equal price. It consists of the set of the costs for the service and support of all infrastructure and the staff to keep up the usual work of the servers and other business, Bebinov explained special for Neweurasia.
The head of the non-government organization “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy” [en] Tattu Mambetalieva expressed her anxiety in the official letter to the Patent Department. She stressed in the letter that the functions of the administering of .kg zone were transferred to the AsiaInfo company by the ICANN [en] organization. ICANN coordinates role of the Internet’s naming system. To change the registrar the special procedure is required. This procedure is set up by the American organization IANA [en], which is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. Moreover, the consent of the AsiaInfo and the opinion of the Internet society are required to start the transfer the right of the domain name registration to the other company. As a rule, the change of the company-registrar will start if the company doesn’t follow the special rules of domain name system structure and delegation (RFC 1591) [en]. The evidence of the rule violations is also required.
The control of the Internet sites from the state structures violates the main rights and freedoms of the people and contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution and the international commitments of Kyrgyzstan. Such control can lead to the legalized censorship in the Internet, said in the letter.
The author of the podcast for the programmers [ru] Oleg Puzanov noted that the decreasing of the price of the domain names would be the important factor for the business.
In one hand, that initiative can increase and give a stimulus for the SME in the Kyrgyz Internet . But in other hand our state because of the lack of the experience in the Internet-business can create very difficult procedure for the registration.  In that case even the drop of the prices won’t help to the local businessmen to buy a domain in .kg. zone, Oleg Puzanov told special for Neweurasia.