co.zm Domain: The Commercial Zone of Zambia
co.zm is the commercial zone under Zambia's country extension. It is administered by ZICTA — the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority, the national regulator. The mandate is statutory rather than commercial: responsibility for the .zm name space was assigned to ZICTA by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2009. The extension was previously managed by ZAMNET, and the formal redelegation in the root zone completed on 1 February 2014.
Registration does not happen at the registry directly but through a registrar licensed in Zambia. The registrant, however, does not have to be Zambian — live names in the zone are held by foreign companies and served by name servers abroad. What is local is the sales channel, not the holder. For a commercial name the sibling zone com.zm sits with the same registry.
Technically the zone is in good health: .zm is signed in the root, and names under co.zm can carry their own DNSSEC signatures. The registry WHOIS works, but publishes no registrant name, address or e-mail at all. To see the status of a name and which registrar currently holds it, use the WHOIS search page.
.CO.ZM Domain at a Glance
- Registry ZICTA — Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (Lusaka)
- Legal basis Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2009
- Previous operator ZAMNET Communication Systems Ltd (until 2013)
- Redelegation Reassigned to ZICTA in the root zone on 1 February 2014
- Sales channel Only through registrars licensed in Zambia
- Dispute procedure No published procedure specific to the extension
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .co.zm domain
- Country Zambia
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 2 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
Popular Domain Extensions for Zambia
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
- .com.zm
- .co.zm
.co.zm Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$349.00 /2 years -
Transfer
$349.00 /2 years -
Renewal
$383.90 /2 years
Included With Every .co.zm Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.co.zm Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: for .co.zm the post-expiry timeline is set by the registry, so it differs from one extension to the next. The diagram below shows the windows that actually apply to .co.zm, day by day. One thing never changes, whichever extension you hold: renewing before the expiry date is always the cheapest and safest route.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .co.zm address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Domain Is Available Again
Once deletion completes, the domain leaves the system and anyone can register it — popular names are often taken the same minute by someone watching. Keep auto-renewal on so a name you care about never gets this far.
.co.zm Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.co.zm Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .co.zm domain
- Country Zambia
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 2 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.co.zm Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support No
Frequently Asked Questions About .co.zm Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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There is no known barrier to being the holder: the zone contains names held by foreign companies and served by name servers outside Zambia. The sales channel is local, however — registrations go through registrars licensed in Zambia. Because the registry publishes no detailed eligibility text, you can ask us in writing about the conditions before you apply.
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There is no known document requirement. The registry publishes no list of documents for registration, and names in the zone are held by foreign companies, so a Zambian presence does not appear to be required either. No document requirement is therefore asserted here; for the exact list, you can ask us in writing before ordering.
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Name length is 3 - 63 characters, the limit defined in our registration system. Because the registry publishes no character rule, the availability of short names can differ from name to name; search your candidate to see its status directly.
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There is no published dispute procedure specific to this extension, and ZICTA publishes none. What remains is a complaint to the regulator and the Zambian courts. Registering the name yourself first is the most practical protection for your trademark.
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The registry publishes no post-expiry chain, so renewing before the term ends is the safest course. Do not judge whether a co.zm name is free by reading its WHOIS expiry date; query it directly through domain name search.
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Yes. The .zm zone is signed in the root (the IANA record carries a DS record), and the registry WHOIS publishes a dedicated DNSSEC field for names under co.zm, so the chain of trust can reach the third level. The feature is not widespread but it exists; if you want to add a DS record, ask our support team.
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No. The registry WHOIS publishes no registrant name, organisation, address, telephone number or e-mail at all; the response consists only of the domain, dates, status codes, name servers, the DNSSEC state and the registrar's contact details. You therefore do not need to buy a separate privacy service — the data is not public in the first place. The flip side: anyone trying to reach the holder of a co.zm name has to go through the registrar.
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