Summary

  • ICANN’s Applicant Support Program approved 56 of 78 submitted support applications; its October new-domain snapshot counts 51 gTLD applications from support-program applicants.
  • The GAC’s 26 October communiqué asks for exit interviews, a review of the fee reduction and continued guidance and pro bono help through the legal and technical stages.

A discount can get an applicant through the first door. It does little good if the next corridor ends at a legal bill. ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee made that worry concrete in its 26 October Bali communiqué: study why prospective and approved participants leave the Applicant Support Program or the larger new-domain round, and keep help available while successful applicants face objections and competing strings.

ICANN can already count the entrance. Its final support-program table shows 78 submitted ASP applications: 56 fully approved, three ineligible, four withdrawn and 15 terminated with incomplete files. A separate 99 organisations started the support process without filing an ASP application. ICANN’s 7 October new-gTLD snapshot then counts 51 domain applications submitted by ASP applicants among 1,615 applications overall. The 56 is a count of approved support applicants; the 51 counts later domain applications. The published tables do not connect the two populations person by person.

That link, and the reasons people stopped, are the work the GAC is asking ICANN to do.

The programme offers a 75–85% reduction in the evaluation fee, capacity support, applicant counselling and access to volunteer professional advisers. Those are substantial benefits at entry. The GAC wants the evaluation to test whether the reduction was effective, whether financial and nonfinancial help reached applicants, and why outcomes differed by region. Its communiqué asks ICANN’s Board and organisation to work with the GAC and the wider community on structured exit surveys and interviews with both approved and unsuccessful applicants.

Initial findings, it says, should ideally arrive before ICANN88 in Lisbon, scheduled for 13–18 March 2027.

There is a second question after approval. The committee urges targeted guidance and pro bono services throughout the remaining stages so supported applicants do not withdraw over further financial or technical obstacles. It names legal costs in objection proceedings and the costs of resolving contention when more than one party seeks a string. The published programme page promises access to pro bono providers; it does not turn every later expense into a prepaid line item. The GAC is asking whether help travels with the applicant when the route becomes expensive.

The regional table sharpens the question without answering it. Of the 56 approved ASP applications, ICANN lists 30 from Asia/Australia/Pacific, 14 from North America, seven from Africa, four from Europe and one from Latin America and the Caribbean. Those totals identify where approvals landed; they do not reveal the cost or reason behind any decision to stop. Interviews tied to programme stages could. A discount sticker on the first gate is easy to photograph. The invoice at the last gate is the test.

Original records: GAC Bali communiqué; ICANN ASP final statistics; ICANN 7 October application disclosure; ICANN support-programme terms; ICANN meeting calendar.