Board considering extra funds to extend bigger discount to all qualified ASP applicants.
ICANN plans to offer a steeper discount to new top level domain applicants under its Applicant Support Program (ASP).
Under the original plan, up to 45 applicants with financial need would receive a 75% discount on evaluation fees, a bid credit for contention set auditions, and reduced registry fees.
Seventy-five entities applied to the ASP. On March 26, the ICANN board approved a resolution to increase funds to cover up to 75, assuming all qualify.
After ICANN’s meeting in Mumbai last month, the Governmental Advisory Committee advocated for increasing the discount fee to 85%, which would cost an additional $3.2 million.
The board plans to approve this increase using funds from last round’s auction proceeds and is asking for community feedback before doing so.
There is no public list of entities that applied to the ASP. However, one nonprofit announced its plans by raising funds on Kickstarter.
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