Tucows Handicaps the Chances of New TLDs Kicking Off In Singapore

Will the new TLD application process finally get approved next month?

For a while it looked assured that the new top level domain name applicant guidebook would get the green light at ICANN’s meeting in Singapore this June.

But then Lawrence Strickling, head of the NTIA, said he didn’t think this was possible unless ICANN got on board with government demands.

So what does Tucows CEO Elliot Noss think the chances are?

BMO Capital Markets analyst Thanos Moschopoulos asked Noss on yesterday’s earnings conference call:

I guess regarding the new TLDs it sounds like that process is sort of kind of politically, any thoughts there in terms of whether that moves ahead or what the outlook is in that front?

Noss responded:

Yeah, I think that everybody is still hopeful. I think we’re watching the political process play out. And really the Singapore meeting is going to be extremely important. So, I think you could see anything from the Singapore meeting starting gun goes off, and the process is initiated to what I would call indeterminate delays. But, I will say that the Singapore meeting is really the first meeting where there is a material chance that we get this whole process started. And I’m certainly hopeful.

OK, so he’s not placing a bet on whether or not it will happen next month. (He’s smarter than that.) But I think he does a good job summarizing the possibility.