John Demco
The comment period has closed for ICANN’s draft gTLD Applicant Guidebook. The comments have been posted, and ICANN has indicated that its staff will “review all comments and provide a summary/analysis of comments to help production of the final Applicant Guidebook, to be released early 2009.” Many organizations sent in thoughtful and comprehensive responses. Here are just a few excerpts:
- Microsoft “objects to the introduction of new ASCII gTLDs” while indicating that “its basic objection … does not apply to the introduction of IDN gTLDs.”
- AT&T indicates that “potential problems are exacerbated by the fact that a foundational economic analysis of both the justification for and impact of the New gTLD Program has not been established, despite ICANN’s recognition for the need for such a study.” AT&T and others refer to the ICANN Board Resolution of October 18, 2006 to undertake this study.
- Time Warner states that “Any rollout of new gTLDs in the immediate future should be limited to those IDN TLD’s needed to satisfy documented demand from users who employ non-ASCII scripts as their primary means of communication.”
- ICANN’s Registrar Constituency “supports the timely introduction of new gTLDs.”
- News Corporation asks that “ICANN reconsider its decision and delay the new gTLD launch until further global studies are conducted supporting the demand for new gTLDs at the macro level and/or scale back the launch to only ‘sponsored’ community TLDs that have broad support from the affected community.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC), via its National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), has also submitted a response. In his blog, John R. Levine comments on the DoC’s “scathing letter”.
Timeline
- Mon, Feb 2: last day for .tel sunrise applications for trademark holders
- Tue, Feb 3 – Mon, Mar 23: .tel domain registrations commence at a premium price
- Sun, Mar 1 – Fri, Mar 6: ICANN meetings in Mexico City, Mexico
- Fri, Mar 6: last day for nominations for the .ORG Advisory Council
- Tue, Mar 24: .tel domain registrations open to all