System for registering new gTLD's 'flawless' says ICANN

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 21 January 2012 12:11

IT Industry - Market

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) claims that its system for accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has got through its first week of operation without a hitch.

"I can state firmly that one week into the process, the application system for the new domain names is functioning just as it should," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's president and CEO. "This is a reflection of the careful planning, hard work and long hours our staff spent preparing for last week's launch."

The new program will greatly expand the current 22 Top-Level Domains (such as .com, .gov and .net) to include almost any word or name. It also allows, for the first time, non-Latin language scripts such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic to be used in a gTLD.

ICANN said that at January 19, "There are 25 successful registrants in the online TLD application system. However, this number does not necessarily represent the total number of applications since each registrant can apply for up to 50 new generic top-level domains."

The deadline to register in the TLD application system is 29 March. If applicants are not registered in the system by that date, they will be unable to apply. In early May, approximately two weeks after the new gTLD application window closes, ICANN will publish a list of the applications and who has applied for which domain name.

 Initial processing of the applications is expected to be completed in mid-November 2012 and the first new generic top-level domains are expected to be online sometime in early 2013.