For those looking forward to the launch of Phase 2 of the New Generic Top-Level Domains program, the good news is that this event could happen sooner than anticipated. One of the key conditions for the start of the stage is the approval of the policies that will be applied in the new domain zones to internationalized domain names. Previously, the working group involved in the development of these policies planned to complete its work in November 2025. Given that the ICANN board would need several months to review the policies, it was clear that they would not be approved until March 2026. Accordingly, the tentative start date for the second phase of the new domain program is now May 2026.
However, last week working group member Donna Austin told the Board of the Generic Top-Level Domains Supporting Organization (ICANN GNSO) that she and her colleagues had revised the timeline. The working group is confident that it will complete policy development as early as October 2024, immediately 13 months earlier than planned. This automatically means that the policies will be approved in early 2025 and the second phase could start in the middle of the same year.
But joy over this will be premature. As mentioned above, the development of policies for internationalized domains is "one of" the key conditions for starting the second phase of the program. The second such condition is the development of policies regarding the so-called Closed Generics. This term refers to domain zones whose names are commonly used dictionary words, while registries intend to use them as branded domains - preventing third-party registrations. This problem has been a stumbling block since the first phase of the new domains program - representatives of the Governmental Advisory Committee (ICANN GAC) strongly oppose Closed Generics.
A working group of GAC and GNSO representatives has been consulting on policy issues since the beginning of this year. The estimated completion date for its work is mid-2025, but so far, there does not seem to be much progress. There is, however, a chance that, if policies are not developed, Closed Generics will remain banned, as happened in the first phase of the program. In this case, the ICANN board will simply have nothing to consider and approve, and the second stage of the new domain program will still start in the second half of 2025. However, Domain Incite, reporting the news, sarcastically notes that no one has yet been able to win money on bets on when ICANN will make this or that decision.
