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About DNS Belgium

History of DNS Belgium

June 1988   

EARN and Eunet introduced the .be domain. Professor Pierre Verbaeten of the Leuven Catholic University (known as “KU Leuven” in Dutch) is appointed manager.  

March 1993   

KU Leuven gets IP connectivity. The name server for .be is installed on the computers of the Computer Science Department.   

December 1993  

The first .be domain names are registered manually. Demand for domain names grows. Each application has to be justified with official documents.  

1994  

A total of 129 .be domain names are registered.  

2 February 1999   

The not-for-profit organisation dns.be is founded by ISPA Belgium, BELTUG and Fabrimetal (subsequently renamed Agoria). The purpose of the organisation is to take over the registration of domain names from the KU Leuven.  

16 March 1999  

DNS.be becomes a member of CENTR , the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries.   

January  2000  

DNS.be takes over the baton definitively from Pierre Verbaeten and the KU Leuven. 

December 2000 

Liberalisation of the .be domain:  

  • DNS.be automates the registration system fully  
  • Companies who conclude a contract with DNS.be are registrars and register their domain names in the automatic registration system of DNS.be  
  • Everyone can register a .be domain name on a “first come, first served” basis  
  • The price charged annually for a domain name drops from €40 to €25  

End of December 2000  

The number of domain names more than doubles in less than 3 weeks, from 40,000 at the beginning of December to 89,718.  

October 2001   

Domain names may change registrants with the consent of both parties.  

September 2002   

DNS.be sets up a consortium with Sweden and Italy to operate the .eu domain based on the Belgian .be model.  

2006  

The price for a .be domain name drops further to €5 per year.  

2008  

A domain name costs hardly €2.5 per year.  

August 2010   

DNS.be launches DNSSEC  in the .be zone. This means that signatures and a public key were added to the zone. From October everyone can register .be domain names with DNSSEC.  

2011  

DNS Belgium automates the transfer of domain names.  

Beginning of 2012  

The Flemish and Brussels governments assign the operation of the respective gTLDs  .vlaanderen and .brussels to DNS.be.  

Spring 2012  

.be domain names can contain letters with accents or characters from another alphabet.  

2013

Name change: DNS.be changes into DNS Belgium

2014 

The new extensions  .vlaanderen and .brussels are launched in 5 different phases.  

2015

Both extensions are available for everyone on a first come, first served basis.  

2016  

  • DNS Belgium is one of the founders of the geoTLD group, an international not-for-profit organisation that wants to promote the digital identity of cities and regions. 
  • ISO 27001 certification

2017

  • .be registration system moves to the cloud
  • .vlaanderen and .brussels registration system moves to our own platform

2018

DNS Belgium become climate ambassador for Flemish Brabant.