Domain Drive: BTCL Invites Retailers to Boost .BD and .বাংলা Registrations
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) has announced plans to recruit authorized resellers for selling the national domains “.bd” and “.বাংলা”, as part of its effort to expand local domain usage and strengthen data sovereignty and security.
On Sunday, October 19, the state-owned telecom operator called upon unauthorized domain resellers to submit valid documentation to become approved partners under this new initiative.
BTCL stated that the move aims to make the national domains more accessible to the public while promoting locally hosted digital infrastructure. As part of the process, the company has launched a three-month “Sunrise Period” for “.bd” second-level domains, allowing existing third-party domain holders to register priority second-level domains before open registration begins on a first-come, first-served basis.
Authorized resellers will be appointed transparently through online applications, confirmed Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser in charge of the relevant ministry.
“We had pledged on September 27 to open up the .বাংলা and .bd domains quickly, and BTCL has fulfilled that commitment,” Taiyeb said. “We have focused on strengthening the capacity of our national telecom operator. The registry rights will remain with BTRC and BTCL, while resellers will be appointed under them. An API has been developed, applications and security patches updated, and the VA-PT (Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test) process is ongoing.”
The “.বাংলা” and “.bd” domains are Bangladesh’s official country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). While “.বাংলা” serves as the native Bangla-language domain, “.bd” continues as the established national domain for Bangladesh-based websites.
Recently, both domains were made available for registration, along with extended domain formats such as .com.bd (e.g., www.google.com.bd) and .org.bd (e.g., www.org.bd).
According to official data, around 45,000 websites — including 37,000 government-hosted sites — currently operate under BTCL’s infrastructure across the .gov, .বাংলা, and .bd domains.
In a recent meeting organized by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), it was also decided that the “.gov” domain will be made available to verified government and autonomous organizations, while the “.edu.bd” domain will be open for verified educational institutions.
