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Short answer: .er is Eritrea’s country-code top-level domain, but it is not currently offered like a normal public domain through established commercial registrars. The safest route is to contact EriTel, the IANA-listed .er manager, and confirm eligibility, availability, price, and the technical process before paying any reseller.

What is the .er domain?

.er is Eritrea’s ccTLD. It was added to the DNS root on September 24, 1996. IANA lists Eritrea Telecommunication Services Corporation (EriTel) as its current manager.

IANA also lists these authoritative nameservers:

  • er.cctld.authdns.ripe.net
  • sawanew.noc.net.er
  • zaranew.noc.net.er

That delegation record confirms who manages the namespace. It does not mean that EriTel currently operates a public online checkout for domain registrations.

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Can anyone register a .er domain?

There is no clearly published, authoritative public eligibility policy confirming that anyone worldwide can register directly under .er. The available evidence points to limited or unavailable public registration:

That does not prove that EriTel can never make a private or direct allocation. It does mean you should not assume that foreign individuals, Eritrean citizens, companies, or diaspora organizations can register automatically. Eritrean citizenship, residence, incorporation, or another connection may matter, but no current official public checklist was located.

Is there an official .er registration website?

EriTel’s official website, eritel.com.er, describes the company’s telecommunications and internet services. Its application page mentions online applications as “coming soon,” but the reviewed material does not provide a public .er registration checkout, published domain policy, or official price list.

Accordingly, treat EriTel as the registry contact rather than as a conventional retail registrar. Contact it directly and ask whether manual allocation is currently possible.

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How to apply directly

1. Check the name, but do not treat the result as proof

Use the IANA WHOIS gateway to query the complete name, such as example.er. A missing result may mean the name is unregistered, but it may also mean that the lookup does not expose ordinary public data, does not support the relevant registration level, or does not index the domain. Only the registry can confirm availability for allocation.

2. Contact EriTel

IANA lists the following registry contacts:

  • Administrative: [email protected]
  • Technical and DNS questions: [email protected]
  • Administrative phone: +291 7110591
  • Technical phone: +291 7169837
  • Address: Semaetat St. No. 11, Asmara 234, Eritrea

EriTel’s website also lists [email protected] as a general support contact.

3. Send a complete request

Include the requested domain, your legal name or organization, country of residence or incorporation, intended use, connection to Eritrea if applicable, preferred term, contact details, and proposed nameservers. Have identification, company-registration, trademark, or authorization documents available if EriTel requests them. These are prudent application details, not confirmed universal requirements.

4. Ask these questions explicitly

  1. Can this applicant register a .er domain?
  2. Is the requested name available?
  3. Is direct registration under .er allowed, or only registration under a third-level category such as .com.er?
  4. What are the registration, renewal, transfer, and restoration fees?
  5. How are nameservers, DNS changes, renewals, transfers, and disputes handled?

Email template

Subject: Request to register a .er domain

Hello,

I would like to ask whether it is currently possible to register:

Requested domain: example.er

Applicant name:
Organization, if applicable:
Country of residence/incorporation:
Connection to Eritrea, if applicable:
Intended use:
Preferred registration term:
Proposed nameservers:

Please confirm:
1. Whether the domain is available;
2. Whether I am eligible to register it;
3. Whether direct registration under .er is permitted;
4. Whether documents or a local contact are required;
5. Registration, renewal, transfer, and restoration fees;
6. The procedure for submitting and managing nameservers.

Thank you.

Be careful with reseller pages

Some third-party pages present .er as if it were an ordinary purchasable extension. For example, NiceNIC advertises one-to-ten-year terms, rapid registration, no additional documents, and trustee services.

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Those claims conflict with the absence of a public registrar listing in IANA and with multiple domain-industry sources reporting that .er is unavailable. The reseller page alone does not establish that the vendor is authorized by EriTel or that an order will create a live registry record.

Do not pay until the seller can document all of the following:

  • Its current relationship with EriTel.
  • That the requested name will be entered into the actual .er registry.
  • That you or your organization will be the legal registrant.
  • How renewals, transfers, expiration, and restoration work.
  • Whether a trustee or proxy is involved and what rights you retain.
  • What happens if EriTel rejects the request.
  • What refund is available if registration fails.

If a seller accepts payment but cannot provide a registry record, registration ID, registrant details, or sponsoring-registrar information, treat the order as unverified. It could be a manual request, stale availability data, a different domain suffix, or an unsupported transaction.

What does .com.er mean?

A name such as example.com.er is not the same as example.er. The former is a third-level domain beneath the com.er category; the latter is a direct name beneath Eritrea’s top-level domain.

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EuropeID mentions .com.er as a possible alternative, but the same material says Eritrean domain registration is generally unavailable. Treat .com.er as a lead for verification, not proof that it can currently be purchased.

Before using it, confirm who operates com.er, whether it is officially delegated and registrable, whether eligibility is restricted to Eritrean commercial entities, and whether you can use external nameservers.

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Cost, timing, renewal, and DNS support

No authoritative current public .er price list or standard processing time was found. Do not rely on generic reseller prices until EriTel or a verified authorized intermediary confirms them in writing.

Also confirm the operational details that matter after registration:

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  • Registration and renewal terms and fees.
  • Expiration, grace-period, and restoration rules.
  • Whether transfers are supported and whether an authorization code is issued.
  • How nameservers are submitted and changed.
  • Whether external DNS providers are permitted.
  • Whether DNSSEC is available.
  • Whether internationalized domain names are supported.
  • What public WHOIS or RDAP information is exposed.
  • How disputes, abuse reports, and outages are handled.

Public authoritative documentation does not sufficiently verify DNSSEC, IDN support, transfer codes, registration-level rules, or ordinary WHOIS/RDAP behavior. Ask EriTel rather than assuming that features available for .com also exist for .er.

Should you use .er for a business?

.er can make sense for an Eritrean business, institution, media outlet, community project, or brand whose identity is specifically tied to Eritrea. It may also appeal to someone seeking a short domain hack ending in “er.”

It is a poor sole domain for a business-critical project if registration, renewal, transfer, DNS management, or dispute procedures remain unclear. A trustee arrangement adds another risk: the trustee may appear to control the registration, and you could lose access if that intermediary disappears or refuses to cooperate.

For a production website, secure a conventional backup domain first. If EriTel later approves the .er name, use it as a regional or campaign address while retaining the conventional domain as the primary operational address.

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Practical alternatives

  • .com: Usually the strongest choice for broad recognition and registrar support.
  • .org: A natural fit for nonprofits, community groups, and public-interest projects.
  • .net: Suitable for some technology or network-oriented projects.
  • .com.er or another Eritrean category: Investigate only through a provider that can document current registry support.
  • Another open extension: If your goal is only an “-er” domain hack and not Eritrean national identity, compare extensions genuinely available through established registrars.

Bottom line

Assume that .er is unavailable through the normal domain market unless EriTel confirms otherwise. An Eritrean organization or applicant with a genuine need should contact EriTel directly. A foreign buyer seeking a clever domain hack should choose a conventional backup instead of trusting an unverified reseller. Do not make .er your only production domain until eligibility, registry control, renewal, transfer, DNS, and support procedures are documented.

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