The www.gov.mu domain name is used for the web portal of the Government of Mauritius. The web portal hosts 150 web sites for the ministries and parastatal bodies, 53 eServices for each ministry. The Government Email Services Project was implemented in May 2001. The aim was to promote the use of email for sharing information and improving communication within the public service and the exchange of correspondence with external entities. The mail.gov.mu domain name is used for email.
On 9 November, 2014, a newspaper published an article about Les sites gouvernementaux de nouveau operationnels". The news article unfortunately contained some inaccuracies about the gov.mu issues.
.mu is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) which has been assigned for Mauritius. The redelegation of the country code top level domain for Mauritius has been described by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) as a "un dossier sinistré". According to the ICTA, "before 2005, an astronomical figure had been brandied when the ccTLD was reclaimed, that made it quasi impossible to even start any kind of negotiations" for the redelegation of the ccTLD". The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word "trustee" as "an individual person or member of a board given control or powers of administration of property in trust with a legal obligation to administer it solely for the purposes specified". Version 1.4 of the Registration Agreement for the .mu ccTLD describes Internet Direct Ltd as the "Trustee Authority and Registry".
In 2004, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority stated that: "ccTLD is managed by a private company/individual, for its/his own profit. Although the law in Mauritius requires a committee of all stakeholders to manage the .mu domain name, the said company/individual has refused to engage in any meaningful dialogue with government or the Information and Communication Technologies Authority for the redelegation of the said .mu domain name for the benefit of the country as a whole".
In 2009, the African Telecommunications Union held a forum in Mauritius in collaboration with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) and the African Top Level Domains Association (AfTLDs). Around that time, "with the support of ICANN, the ex-Minister of ICT happened to sign an MOU on behalf of government with the entity managing the .mu, setting out the steps that shall be taken in view of allowing the country to regain management of its ccTLD".
In 2012, the Chairman of the ICTA stated that: "The present situation is clearly detrimental to the development of online local content and to the promotion of our online identity as a cyber nation. In short, the present .mu administration set up is denying the Mauritian citizen of his right to be empowered in the management of one of its communication resources which is the .mu ccTLD".
On 7 October, 2014, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology scheduled a meeting of the "Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Internet Governance" and circulated a draft of a "Proposed Governance Framework for the .mu ccTLD".
The mail.gov.mu email delivery issue started on 7 October, 2014. There was a report about email delivery failures with British Telecom and Gmail on 21 October, 2014.
The mict.gov.mu web site was inaccessible as from 7 October, 2014. There was a report that www1.gov.mu was inaccessible on 30 October, 2014. The tertiary.gov.mu web site was inaccessible on 31 October, 2014.
"Les professionnels du secteur ne manquent pas de rappeler à l'occasion que le portail du gouvernement — qui avait fait peau neuve pour un coût de Rs 50 M en février 2012" "était un gaspillage de fonds publics et n'a que partiellement répondu aux attentes, puisque trop lent et pas renouvelé de façon régulière. Son relooking fut aussi très discuté".
The breakdown of the cost (excluding Value Added Tax) of the web portal was as follows:
Hardware Rs 8,985,660
Portal solution Rs 9,818,964
Training Rs 960,000
Support Rs 4,104,000
Installation Rs 19,601,500
The total cost, VAT inclusive, was Rs 49,990,643. On 29 January, 2014, the www.gov.mu web site was tested. The initial access to www.gov.mu took 0.03 seconds. The initial access to www.google.mu web site took 0.55 seconds. The screenshot below shows how the the www.gov.mu web site looks on a on a mobile device:
"Selon l'agence de presse chinoise Xinhua en avril 2012, c'est depuis 2008 que le gouvernement mauricien souhaitait pouvoir prendre le contrôle du nom de domaine ".mu" qui est actuellement géré par le Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Scholl of Management, USA."
According to the ICTA, "in December 2005, after a new government came into power and a new ICTA Board was appointed, reclaiming .mu was made a priority". By the beginning of 2007, "a roadmap had been worked out in three phases to allow the country regain its ccTLD". The sponsoring organization for the .mu ccTLD is Internet Direct Limited.
"Après la signature de ce Memorandum of Understanding avec Internet Direct, Maurice était devenue le deuxième pays après l'Afrique du Sud à avoir repris les droits sur son nom de domaine."
Given the issues with the www.gov.mu and mail.gov.mu domain names it is not clear whether Mauritius actually gained the rights to the .mu ccTLD or whether the organisations which participated in the forum in 2009 provided useful advice to help Mauritius gain any rights to the .mu ccTLD.
"Du côté du MIT Sloan Scholl of Management, on se défendait de vouloir à tout prix garder le contrôle du domaine .mu."
The news article quotes a representative of the "MIT Sloan Scholl of Management". The MIT Sloan staff directory does not contain any of the names of the persons quoted in the news article.
"Pour le country code .mu, c'est la société Internet Direct Ltd qui gère le DNS. Le fait que l'État n'ait pas payé, IDL a enlevé les adresses IP des serveurs du gouvernement de son DNS. Qu'a fait l'État ? Il a demandé aux fournisseurs d'accès Internet mauriciens de rediriger toutes les demandes d'accès à gov.mu vers les serveurs du gouvernement sans consulter le DNS du nom de domaine .mu, cela en contravention des règlements de l'ICANN."
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) does not have any regulations regarding the domain name system (DNS). None of the Internet Service Providers in Mauritius which implemented technical changes as a workaround notified their subscribers about those changes. Implementing those technical changes is similar to operating gov.mu domain names on an intranet instead ensuring that the domain names are reachable over the internet.
Correction (11 November): This article was corrected as the installation cost was incorrect in the previous version.
1. National Computer Board - Launching of the New Government Portal, 22 February 2013
2. FRCI - Official Communique: Precisions on the new portal www.gov.mu, 11 March 2013
3. 'MINISTÈRE DES TIC/INTERNET DIRECT LTD : Les sites gouvernementaux de nouveau opérationnels', Le Mauricien, 9 November 2014
4. 'Fifth National Assembly - Parliametary debates - Second Session', Hansard, 9 April 2013
5. 'ANNEX .MU - SPECIAL CONDITIONS FOR THE .MU ccTLD - Version 1.4', Gandi, 27 February 2013
6. ICTA - African Policy Makers and Regulators gather in Mauritius to explore key issues on Internet Governance
7. IANA - Delegation Record for .MU
8. About MIT Sloan - Staff Directory