KABUL, Afghanistan - "Planting its flag in cyberspace," Afghanistan will officially activate its .af Internet domain name on Monday for Afghan e-mail addresses and Web sites, officials and the United Nations said.
The effort, a joint collaboration between the U.N. Development Program and the Afghan Ministry of Communications, marks a giant technological leap for a country where the Internet was banned for years during the former Taliban regime. But it is likely to be a long time before the average, impoverished Afghan citizen will be able to afford to explore the new possibilities.
"Equivalent to a country code for telephone numbers, the .af Internet suffix has now been reserved exclusively for private and official e-mail and World Wide Web users in Afghanistan," UNDP said in a statement.
"Afghanistan is officially planting its flag in cyberspace, gaining full legal and technical control of the ".af" Internet domain," the organization said.