New TLD contracting

The following is an outline of the Contracting process as defined by ICANN, it is our goal to supplement this with actual contracting timelines and action items that are encountered by new TLD applicants. Information can be edited directly, or contact Andrew Merriam, andrew[at]tldesign.co

Steps & Timeline

1. CIR (approx. 8 days)
   1. CIR Review
2. Sign Registry Agreement
3. Pre-Delegation Testing (approx. 6 weeks)
4. Transition to Delegation (approx. 2 weeks)
5. Delegation
6. Registry Onboarding
   1. Sunrise (min. 60 days)

Contracting Information Request

• See Contracting Information Request summary and example.
  • ICANN's CIR Guide, with examples
• ICANN suggested timeline: 8 days
• Applicant timeline examples: _ days

Registry Agreement

• See Summary and Examples on Signing Registry Agreement
• ICANN suggested timeline: 7 days
• Applicant timeline examples:

Pre-Delegation Testing

• See Pre-Delegation Testing for summary
• ICANN suggested timeline: 2-3 weeks
  • In prior documents, ICANN has broken this down as 2 weeks for testing, and an additional 2-3 weeks for reporting the PDT results. This seems to have been recently conflated and changed to a 6 week process, according to slides from ICANN 48 in Buenos Aires.
• Applicant timeline examples:
  • 21 days, Aug 5-Aug 26; DotShabaka. Yasmin Omer has explained that as the first applicant to go through PDT, their experience should not be taken as indicative of current ICANN processes.
• Self-Test Tools are available at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/pdt#resources

Transition to Delegation

• ICANN suggested timeline: 2 weeks
• Applicant timeline examples:

Delegation

Sunrise Period

• See Sunrise Period summary, (min. 60 days)
  • ICANN mandated timeline for Start Date Sunrise: 30 day notice period with a minimum of 30 days running
  • ICANN mandated timeline for End Date Sunrise: no notice period, minimum of 60 days running

Top-Level Domain