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[To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org]

Governments and Country-Code Managers' Interest in the Fast Track Process

10 February 2009

Last year, ICANN sent letters to countries and territories informing them about the Fast Track process — where a limited number of internationalized domain names will be added to the Internet – and asked them to indicate their level of interest. This is an update on that process.

A total of 252 letters were sent to national governments, and copied to country code top-level domain managers. So far we have received 74 responses and a small number of respondents requested confidentiality.

Out of these (not counting confidential requests), 31 said they were interested in participating in the Fast Track process, representing a total of 15 different languages. The remaining expressed they were not interested in participating at this time or indicated that they would not be eligible to obtain an IDN ccTLD under the process. (It should be noted that it is not a requirement to reply to the letter in order for a country or territory to take participation in the Fast Track process.)

Below this announcement is an updated overview of all non-confidential responses to date.

The actual strings that the respondents are interested in obtaining have not been duplicated below but they can be seen by clicking the link to the PDFs for the actual replies.

Receiving the information about the anticipated number of requests in the Fast Track Process along with the language specifics is very helpful in planning for implementation of the Fast Track Process. ICANN would like to thank those respondents for providing this information.

If you have any questions concerning the information contained in this announcement please email ICANN at: idn-cctld-rfi@icann.org

Related links

Sample letter sent to all governments and ccTLD registries
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02oct08-en.htm

Earlier announcement on responses received
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-01nov08-en.htm

For more details about the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process:
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Responses from National Government:

Country	Interest in obtaining and IDN ccTLD during the Fast Track Process		If the IDN ccTLD string is unknown, is the script and languages known?		Anticipated time- frame for launch
	Yes	No	Language	Script
ANGUILLA		x	English	ASCII Codes
ARMENIA		x
BARBADOS		x
BHUTAN	x				1-year
BOLIVIA		x	Spanish		1/2-year
BRASIL		x
BULGARIA	x		Bulgarian	Cyrillic	mid-2009
CAYMAN ISLANDS		x
DENMARK		x
EGYPT	x		Arabic	Arabic	6-months
FINLAND		x
GREECE	x		Greek	Greek
JAPAN	x				about 1-year
JORDAN	x				1/2-year; by Q1 2009
KOREA (REP. OF)	x		Korean	Hangeul	6-months - 1-year
LAO P.D.R.	x		Laotian		mid-2010
LIECHTENSTEIN		x
LITHUANIA		x
NETHERLANDS		x
NORWAY		x
MEXICO		x	Spanish	Latin
MONGOLIA	x		Mongolian		3-months
MOROCCO	x		Arabic	Arabic	18-months
NEW ZEALAND		x
NIUE		x
PAKISTAN	x
PITCAIRN		x
RUSSIAN FEDERATION	x		Russian	Cyrillic	ready
SAUDI ARABIA	x
SINGAPORE	x		Chinese, Malay, Tamil
SLOVAK REPUBLIC		x
SWEDEN	x		Yiddish		ready
TONGA		x	Tongan	Roman
TUNISIA	x		Arabic		1/2-year
TURKEY	x		Turkish	Latin w/extensions	6-months
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	x				2nd half of '09
UNITED STATES		x

Responses from ccTLD Operators:

Country	Interest in obtaining and IDN ccTLD during the Fast Track Process		If the IDN ccTLD string is unknown, is the script and languages known?		Anticipated timeframe for launch
	Yes	No	Language	Script
ALGERIA	x
ANDORRA		x	Catalan
ARMENIA		x
AUSTRIA		x	German	ASCII	2-years
BRASIL		x
BULGARIA	x		Bulgarian	Cyrillic	immediately
CHILE		x
CHINA	x
COSTA RICA		x
CROATIA		x
CZECH REPUBLIC		x
GUADELOUPE		x
IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF	x		Persian(Farsi)		ready
ISRAEL	x		Hebrew		up to 6-months
KENYA		x	English	Latin
LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA	x				1-year
LITHUANIA		x
LUXEMBOURG		x
MONGOLIA	x		Mongolian		3-months
NETHERLANDS		x
NEW ZEALAND		x
PANAMA		x
ROMANIA		x	Romanian	Latin	N/A
RUSSIAN FEDERATION	x		Russian		end 2008
SRI LANKA	x		Sinhala, Tamil	Sinhala, Tamil	Dec '08
SWEDEN	x		Yiddish		ready
SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC	x		Arabic	Arabic	6-months
THAILAND	x		Thai		6-12 months
TUNISIA	x		Arabic		1/2-year

Glen de Saint Géry

GNSO Secretariat

gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org

http://gnso.icann.org