Full Name of Registry: Lesotho Network Information Centre (LsNIC)
Contact details: phone: +266 2222 4300 / +266 5222 1300
Founding date:
Registration Model: 3R model,
Number of domain names: ~1500 domains
History:
.ls was first delegated to National University of Lesotho in 1993, and due to lack of technical expertise then, NUL redelegated technical contact to Rhodes University in South Africa. Registrations were only allowed from the second level, .ls was not open for the public. There was only one registrar, which was registering .co.ls, .org.ls, and .net.ls only. .gov.ls was and is still restricted to the government entities and is under the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology management. NUL was responsible for ac.ls which is strictly meant for higher education institutions.
The 2012 Communications Act brought about the change, it gave the communications Regulator (Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA)) the responsibility to operate and manage .ls domains.
In 2016, LCA started a new non-profit making company, LsNIC with the mandate to manage the .ls domain operations.
LsNIC managed to migrate the technical contact from Rhodes University, and the Sponsoring Organization role from NUL to its name.
Changed the operating model to 3R model, and opened the accreditation of local companies to be the registrars. Implemented a new registry system that enable registrars to do online automated registrations. The registry is still in its infancy stage and there are a number of projects in the pipeline to improve its operations