Last week, ICANN released the estimated cost of the technical review that new gTLD registries will need to undergo to participate in the second phase of the new domain program. And the amount mentioned turned out to be quite large – $92,000. If you add this to the cost of applying for a new domain - which is supposedly $250,000 - the total cost for the registry applying to delegate the new domain will be $342,000.
However, it should be understood that applicants for new domains are not required to be registries or have the appropriate technical capabilities to do so. They may use third-party registry service providers (RSPs) from an ICANN-approved list. It is precisely the inclusion in this list after passing the examination that is now valued at $92,000. But if a certain company seeks to obtain a domain and independently perform the functions of a registry, then its “entry fee” at the next stage of the new domain program will be the same $342,000.
According to the Domain Incite, this information caused sharp criticism from many representatives of the domain community. In particular, Rubens Kuhl, a representative of the Brazilian country code registry Nic.br, said: “What ICANN is suggesting right now simply kills off all Global South RSPs. Those RSPs could have the technical capability to run gTLDs, and they run very large ccTLDs… It simply seems like a system designed to keep the Global South out.”
The term “Global South” usually refers to the countries of the Southern Hemisphere (mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America), which are inferior in income to the countries of North America and Europe. And it’s hard not to agree that the above amount can indeed become a serious obstacle for registries from these countries. It is expected that this issue will be the subject of heated discussion at the next ICANN meeting, which will be held in Rwanda in June.
