.comcast

Status:	Proposed
Registry:	Comcast IP Holdings I, LLC
Registry Backend:	Nominet
Type:	Brand TLD
Priority #:	1353 - Comcast
More information:

.comcast is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Comcast.

Application Details

The following is an excerpt of the applicant's response to question #18:

"Comcast Corporation (“Comcast”) is a leading provider of video, high-speed Internet, and phone services to residential and business customers in the United States. As of December 31, 2010, Comcast cable systems served approximately 22.8 million video customers, 17.0 million high-speed Internet customers and 8.6 million phone customers and passed over 51 million homes and businesses in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Comcast offers services in the following segments:

Cable Services – Comcast offers a variety of services over its cable distribution system, including video, high-speed Internet, and phone services. Comcast focuses its technology initiatives on extending the capacity and efficiency of its network, increasing the capacity and functionality of set-top boxes, developing and integrating cross-service features and functionality, and developing interactive Internet protocol-based services.

Video Services – Comcast video service offerings range from a limited analog service to a full digital service, as well as advanced services. Comcast tailors its video services for each cable distribution system serving a particular geographic area according to applicable local and federal regulatory requirements, programming preferences, and demographics.

High-Speed Internet Services – Comcast offers high-speed Internet services with Internet access at downstream speeds of up to 105 Mbps. These services also include Comcast’s Internet portal, Comcast.net, which provides multiple e-mail addresses and online storage, as well as a variety of content and value-added features and enhancements that are designed to take advantage of the speed of the Internet services provided. Comcast’s high-speed Internet service for business customers also includes a website hosting service and an online tool that allows customers to share, coordinate, and store documents.

18.1.2 Mission and Purpose

Through a unified corporate approach, Comcast intends to submit two gTLD applications for the strings .COMCAST and .XFINITY. Comcast IP Holdings I, LLC, (“Comcast IP”) a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast, will be the entity to file this application and bring the .COMCAST gTLD to market.

The intended mission and purpose of the .COMCAST gTLD is to serve as a trusted and intuitive namespace for the benefit of Comcast and its qualified subsidiaries’ and affiliates’ customers and other Internet users, that will deepen and broaden these entities’ relationships with those audiences.

Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current gTLD application round, it is widely anticipated in the brand-owner community that this will become a specialty subset of the gTLDs. .COMCAST is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting Comcast’s online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotion efforts, providing a secure channel for online products and services, and offering a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Comcast.

Comcast IP intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .COMCAST gTLD to Comcast and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Comcast IP to establish .COMCASTʹs operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt Comcast IP from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.

After the initial stages of operation, Comcast IP will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Comcast and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates."

Name Collision Issues

In October 2013 ICANN released their final assessment and mitigation plan for the Name Collision issue that was facing the New gTLD program. On 18 November 2013, ICANN announced the applied-for strings that were eligible for an alternative path towards delegation that would allow applicants to proceed without waiting for further mitigation research and plans to be published. 25 strings, including .comcast, were not eligible for the alternative path, and will have to wait for more plans to be published before continuing towards delegation.