As of September 2011, members of the general public can register Qatar Internet domain names (.qa) that are available through accredited registrars. Prior to the making the .QA domain available to the public, QDR held a “sunrise” period for the domains which enabled trademark holders and government entities to register for the Qatar-specific domain names.[2]
As of 2014, thirteen registrars have been accredited by Qatar Domains Registry to offer the domain names. These registrars are Qtel, W3infotech, IP Mirror, Ascio,MarkMonitor, Marcaria, EPAG Domainservices, Safenames, Thexyz, CPS-Datensysteme, DomainMonster, and InternetX.[3]
Qatar Domains Registry, regulated by the Communications Regulatory Authority, manages Qatar'scountry code top-level domains (ccTLD), which includes domains which are offered through accredited registrars and other closed domains related to Qatari institutions which means you must register your domain name directly from the Qatar Domains Registry. Qatar is among the first countries in the world to be able to offer domain names in Arabic, قطر. domain represents Qatar's Arabic language online identity.
Qatar domains available through approved registrars are: .qa, .com.qa, .net.qa, .name.qa and Arabic قطر. the latter of which is represented as.xn--wgbl6a inPunycode.
The domains that are registered directly from the Qatar Domains Registry are : .gov.qa, .mil.qa, .org.qa, .edu.qa and .sch.qa.
The Communication Regulatory Authority (CRA) has recently discontinued issuing registrar licenses to international businesses.
