Recent Posts
- Got junk? June’s biggest gTLD growers do
- ICANN ditches Oman due to Middle-East conflicts
- ICANN’s mighty overlord flexes on transparency
- ICANN faces first pushback over DEI U-turn
- Loads of firms flunk out of next-round gTLD back-end program
- presidenttrump.xxx among thousands of dead .xxx domains suddenly springing to life
- One of the dumbest gTLDs just switched back-ends
- GoDaddy loses .co to Team Internet
- Governments erect bulk-reg barrier to new gTLD next round
- Little interest in cheapo gTLD program
- US government opposes most new gTLDs
- GoDaddy loses last Amazon business to Identity Digital
- Third Amazon gTLD launch dates revealed
- .TOP promises to play nice on DNS abuse
- Court denies ICANN’s #MeToo “cover up” attempt
- Launch dates for two more Amazon gTLDs revealed
- An end to “Club Med for geeks” ICANN?
- Some people paid premiums for .hot domain hacks
- .io questions in sharp focus as UK signs Chagos treaty
- Big .gdn registrar at risk
- ICANN “reaffirms its commitment to diversity and inclusion”
- ICANN kills off diversity and inclusion
- Kaufmann picked for ICANN board
- Conflicted? STFU under new ICANN rules
- .hot is for hookers? Amazon’s first premium regs revealed
- Gname adds another 200 registrars
- New Pope’s .com domain was registered the day Francis died
- Two deadbeat registrars get their ICANN marching orders
- DotMusic has sold a lot of names, but not many are turned on
- .med is a deeply weird gTLD, but it wants to be more normal
- ICANN cuts off money to UASG
- Web.com getting dumped
- .es and .pt riding out massive power outage
- .com is back as Verisign discounts bear fruit
- Dot-brand actually being used to get deleted
- Verisign gave Trump $100,000
- Private Whois requests hit new low after Tucows quits RDRS
- Zoom says GoDaddy took it down for hours
- The Soviet Union might be safe after all
- Google says its ccTLDs “are no longer necessary”
- Facebook thinks ICANN is a bit rubbish
- ICANN spending $365,000 a year on coffee and booze
- Regulator going after suicide site that even Epik banned
- .ai sees $600,000 auction sales in a month
- Pru trims its dot-brand portfolio
- UK’s Nigel Hickson has died
- .blog registry ordered to change name to Knock Knock RDAP There
- WordPress buys Canadian, swaps CentralNic for CIRA
- Latest ICANN salary porn ruins my terrible pun
- .co deal worth $77 million up for grabs
- I get a wrongful kicking as .su registry denies turn-off plan
- Sales and profits dip at Team Internet
- Four deadbeat registrars get terminated
- “No timeline” to retire Soviet Union from the DNS
- ICANN to kill off 60-day domain transfer lock
- Lancaster bags up its dot-brand
- Google readying its next batch of gTLD launches?
- NomCom confirms Americans rejected from ICANN board
- Nova announces $45 million of new gTLD applications
- Registry makes .ai an option for Koreans
- it.com now bigger than Guatemala
- ICANN turns to AI and crowdsourcing for new gTLD program
- Amazon lawyer DiBiase elected to ICANN board
- Is .io safe now? Identity Digital now running Mauritian ccTLD
- Tucows quits ICANN’s Whois disclosure pilot
- Toshiba goes all-in on its dot-brand
- Google scuppers Team Internet acquisition after profit warning
- .ai channel doubles under new management
- Trump inclined to back deal that threatens .io
- As .com shrinks, China adds another 1.2 million domains
- Second new gTLD contention set revealed
- UK intros global domain takedown law
- No more Americans as Holland wins ICANN board seat
- Registries have started shutting down Whois
- ICANN wins IRP because complainant literally doesn’t exist
- .com could return to growth this quarter
- Could Musk’s DOGE kill off D3’s .doge?
- $2 million Christmas bonus for ICANN
- Another VW car dot-brand crashes out
- Largest back-end switch EVER as GoDaddy loses deal
- Yeah, we got phished, ICANN admits after crypto hack
- ICANN hacked to promote crypto scam
- Super Bowl a bit of a dud for .com?
- More gloom predicted for .com
- These are the .gov domains Trump has deleted so far
- Did Trump just create the world’s next ccTLD?
- $3,000 to do a Whois lookup?
- PIR to join GlobalBlock, but its crown jewel won’t
- LA wildfire victims get domain deletes delay
- .free domains to finally arrive as Amazon reveals three gTLD launches
- Six more gTLDs shown the door, five may be auctioned
- Registrar terminated after ignoring Whois transition
- $10 million ICANN giveaway winners picked
- Whois officially died today
- Typo left MasterCard open to hackers for years
- Could ICANN approve an R-word gTLD?
- These are the TLD growers and shrinkers of 2024 (part two)
- GoDaddy ordered to stop lying about crappy security
- These are the TLD growers and shrinkers of 2024 (part one)
- Dead terrorist domains for sale, just without the hyphens
- ICANN eyes more price hikes as it predicts dismal year for industry
- Meet the six people battling to join ICANN’s board
- New gTLD use cases not much use
- Defensive dot-brands are renewing, making ICANN millions
- Identity Digital offers free domain trials through LinkedIn
- Antisemitic remarks cost registrar dearly
- ICANN lawyers want to keep their clients secret
- Facebook cybersquatter asks ICANN to overturn UDRP ruling
- .xxx founder Stuart Lawley has died
- The new gTLD Next Round is really happening as two ICANN programs go live
- Verisign has much to be thankful for as .com contract renewed
- Another 40,000 .ai domains registered
- RDRS usage hits new low
- A dot-brand that was actually used is shutting down
- .id joins the million-domain club
- GoDaddy’s .xxx contract renewed
- Twitter clone Bluesky has one feature domain people should like
- ICANN confirms two bans on new gTLD gaming
- eBay slogan domain no longer has a BIN price
- Will Donald Trump be .io’s white knight?
- As customers flee legacy gTLDs, .org tops 11 million names
- Company accidentally puts porn domain on kids’ toys
- eBay’s new slogan looks like a $75,000 domain it doesn’t own
- Americans are deserting .com
- Weak Q3 for the domain universe, Verisign reports
Loads of firms flunk out of next-round gTLD back-end program
Kevin Murphy,
June 18, 2025, 18:21:05 (UTC),
Domain Registries
A surprising number of would-be back-end registry service providers have already been eliminated from ICANN’s Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program for not submitting their applications in time.
Program statistics for May recently published reveal that 19 potential RSPs were in the system but failed to submit their required information before the application window closed May 20.
That leaves a total of 46 RSPs still in the system (pretty much in line with expectations) with 26 of those still waiting to clear their background checks. Another 15 have fully submitted their bids, though none have yet been approved.
The stats, which are broken down by geographic region, means that a maximum of one RSP from the Latin America and Caribbean region and one from Africa will be pre-approved to provide back-end services when the next new gTLD application window opens next year.
But wannabe RSPs will be able to apply again, simultaneously with their clients gTLD applications.
Asia-Pacific has 15 live applications, Europe 17 and North America 12.
The RSP program gives new gTLD applicants the chance to tick the technical services questions box by simply signing up with an already-approved provider. Being preapproved gives a pretty strong competitive advantage to RSPs in the 2026 round.
If you find this post or this blog useful or interestjng, please support Domain Incite, the independent source of news, analysis and opinion for the domain name industry and ICANN community.
The 26 are waiting to clear either background check or payment. Payments were due 45dd, so if an applicant submitted information May 20th, it would only be removed from the program in July, and those statistics will be published in August. But previously issued invoices might make some applicants already be removed this month.