Akram Attalah, the President of the Global Domain Domains Division of ICANN, presented a report at the 54th ICANN Meeting in Dublin. He summed up the results of the first stage of the new gTLD program, according to The Domains. "Back at ICANN 53 we said we were going to increase the number of delegated gTLD to 775 by this meeting and we didn’t get there, - said Akram Attalah. We’re at 769. So we’re about six short right now, and I’m hoping for the end of the week, we will hit that mark."
He also reported that ICANN signed 1200 registry agreements, and 64 more are expected to be signed. He let know that the remaining ones will have some difficulties, and they might take some longer time or be withdrawn. Nevertheless, as a whole, the first stage of the new gTLD program is close to the issues concerning agreement sign and domain delegation, and the course of this process meets ICANN's expectations.
Besides, Akram Attalah told that the number of accredited ICANN domain registrars reached 2121 in the world, having increased for 579 since June, 2015. ICANN is expecting of further growth as not so long ago the corporation cancelled the responsibility of registrar insurance requirement which was excessive financial burden for many companies in developing countries.
