gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.chat	dot Chat Limited	famousfourmedia.com	View

Q18C
What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?

The Applicant fully appreciates the concerns of ICANN, the GAC and other consumer protection authorities about the need to operate new gTLDs in ways that minimize social costs, consumer vulnerabilities as well as other time and financial resource costs. To achieve these goals this gTLD will not only employ the ICANN mandated minimum protections, but will also deploy the following innovative protection measures that will put the gTLD at the forefront of addressing these critical issues:

1) Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Policies and Procedures

The Applicant’s core mission and purpose is to create an environment where individuals and companies can interact and express themselves in ways never before seen on the Internet, in a more targeted, secure and stable environment. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation (ʺAPMʺ) policies and procedures.

These Policies and Procedures will include: 1) gTLD APM Plan, 2) Policies and Procedures to Minimize Abusive Registrations ,3) Abuse Point of Contact, 4) Policies for Handling Complaints Regarding the Abuse Policies, 5) Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 6) Proposed Measures for Removal of Orphan Glue Records, 7) Resourcing plans for the initial implementation of, and ongoing maintenance of, the APM initiatives, 8) Registry semi-annual WHOIS verification, 9) Regular monitoring of WHOIS registration data for accuracy and completeness, 10) Registrar WHOIS self-certification, 11) WHOIS data reminder process, 12) Establishing policies and procedures to ensure Registrar compliance, which may include audits, financial incentives, penalties, or other means, 13) Registrar verification of WHOIS, 14) Abuse Response Process, 15) Policies and procedures that define malicious or abusive behaviour, 16) Service Level Requirements for resolution regarding APM issues, 17) Service Level Requirements for Law enforcement requests regarding APM issues, 18) Coordination of APM efforts with sector Groups and Law Enforcement, 19) Rapid takedown and suspension, 20) Controls to Ensure Proper Access to Domain Functions, 21) Enabling two-factor authentication from Registrants to process update, transfers, and deletion requests, 22) Enabling multiple, unique points of contact to request and⁄or approve update, transfer, and deletion requests, 23) Enabling the notification of multiple, unique points of contact when a domain has been updated, transferred, or deleted, 24) Additional Mechanism for Protection of Capital City Names, 25) Additional Mechanisms to Protect and Reserve IGO Names, 26) Governance Council Structure, 27) Efforts to increase Registrant Security Awareness, 28) Registrant Disqualification, 29) Restrictions on Proxy Registration Services, 30) Registry Lock. (Q28 for detail)

2) Rights Protection Mechanisms

The Applicant is firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and to implementing all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (“RPMs”) contained in the Applicant Guidebook and detailed in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement. Use of domain names that infringe upon the legal rights of others in the gTLD will not be tolerated and preventing abusive registrations is a core objective of the Applicant. The nature of such uses creates security and stability issues for the Registry, Registrars, and Registrants, as well as for users of the Internet in general. The Applicant will minimize time or financial resources costs by preventing abusive registrations and reduce opportunities for behaviours such as phishing or pharming. This will be achieved by implementing comprehensive registration, anti-abuse, and rights protection guidelines as defined in its AUP, as well as innovative additional RPMs such as the Mechanism to Protect IGO Names by blocking second level labels currently present in the .int zone file and the Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, as described below. In order to identify and address the abusive use of registered names on an ongoing basis, the Applicant will also incorporate and abide by the following RPMs and all other RPMs as specified in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement and as adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors as ICANN Consensus Policies.

These Rights Protection Mechanisms will among other things include: 1) Trademark Clearinghouse, 2) Applicant’s Sunrise Period, 3) Trademark Claims Service , 4) Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, 5) Uniform Rapid Suspension System, 6) Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure, 7) Mechanism to protect IGO Names, 8) Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, 9) Efforts to promote WHOIS Accuracy, 10) Thick Searchable WHOIS, 11) Semi Annual Audits to Ensure Accurate WHOIS, 12) Policies Handling Complaints Regarding Abuse and Rights Issues, 13) Registry Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 14) Monitoring for Malicious Activity. (Q29 for detail)

3) Governance Council Structure

The Applicant believes that sector stakeholders should be afforded the opportunity to influence the manner in which the gTLD is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant will establish a Governance Council (the “GC”) comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body tasked with defining best practice recommendations for the gTLD space. The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined largely by the sector’s key stakeholders. Not only will these stakeholders have the primary interest in registering domains in the gTLD, but they will also be motivated to protect the sector from practices that would negatively impact the sector overall. The GC exists to provide guidance on matters related to best practices, intellectual property, authentication, certification, and other matters of importance to the sector and it will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific policies, and other best practices related to the gTLD.

4) BITS and Coalition for Online Accountability (“COA”) Recommendations

The Applicant will further structure its policies around the BITS and COA Recommendations where relevant to this gTLD. The Applicant’s goal is to provide a safe and secure experience for consumers. A domain within this gTLD that is owned, operated by or compromised by a malicious party could cause harm to consumers, to the gTLDʹs reputation and to the reputation of the Internet itself. As such, additional controls are in place relating to the validity of registrations, as well as measures to ensure the correct identity of both Registrants and Registrars relating to changes made within the SRS, and to protecting the integrity of the DNS service as a whole.

The Security Standards Working Group (SSWG) formed by BITS drafted a set of policy recommendations that should be applied to financial TLDs. The policy comprises of a set of 31 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant of a financial gTLD. The recommendations were posted by BITS in the form of a letter to ICANN at [http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄correspondence⁄aba-bits-to-beckstrom-crocker-20dec11-en.pdf].

The Coalition for Online Accountability have drafted a set of policy recommendations, also endorsed by many other international organizations representing the creative industries, that should be applied to entertainment gTLDs - especially those dependent on copyright protection. The policy comprises of a set of 7 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant for an entertainment-based gTLD. The recommendations were posted by COA in the form of a letter to ICANN at http:⁄⁄bit.ly⁄HuHtmq.

We welcome the recommendations from BITS and the COA and will strongly consider the recommendations relating to the implementation of this gTLD where considered relevant.

5) Registry Operators Startup Plan

The Applicant proposes to implement the following start-up plan so that the new gTLD is introduced in an orderly, transparent and stable manner. This will safeguard competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrants, the User Community, ICANN Accredited Registrars, and other Stakeholders.
The Applicant’s startup plan is designed to minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resources costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities) by instilling a number of RPMs as well as APMs.
The plan consists of the following multi-phase process that will be executed by the Registry Operator. The timeline for the gTLDs start-up process and associated RPMs in the Applicants gTLD is as follows:

Phase 1 – Sunrise Process:

- Day 1: Sunrise round opens
- Day 60: Sunrise round Closes
- Day 61: Sunrise Allocation Including contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 71: Sunrise Allocation contention resolution mechanisms closes

• The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:
a. Trademark Clearinghouse (“TMCH”)
b. Sunrise Eligibility Requirements (“SER”)
c. Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy (“SDRP”)
d. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”)
e. Uniform Rapid Suspension System (ʺURSʺ)
f. Mechanism for the Protection of IGO Names (“PIN”)
g. Trademark Claims Service (“TCS”) *

Phase 2 – Landrush process:

- Day 72: Landrush opens
- Day 102: Landrush closes
- Day 103: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 113: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms closes

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names (“CCC”)
e. TCS *

Phase 3 – General Availability⁄Registrations:

- Day 114: General availability begins

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (“PDDRP”)
e. TCS for the 90 days after day 114 *

* To ease the concerns of trademark owners and mitigate the impact of infringing registrations, the Applicant will be implementing the TCS in all three phases of launch. It is important to note that during the General Availability Phase, the TCS will be used for 90 days, 30 days longer than the ICANN mandated minimum.

18(C)(i) How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?

Sunrise and Landrush periods:

During the gTLDs launch period, multiple applications for a particular domain name will be resolved through a Contention Resolution Mechanism (“CRM”) involving auctions. These CRMs will apply to the Sunrise and Landrush application phases. The CRMs will be conducted by Sedo GMBH, an experienced provider of domain auction services. The mechanisms offered will involve closed auctions where only specific bidders can participate.

During the Applicants Sunrise process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Sunrise phase (“Sunrise Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Sunrise eligibility requirements including the TMCH.

During the Applicants Landrush process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Landrush phase (“Landrush Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Landrush eligibility requirements.

General Availability:

After the two initial startup phases of the Registry the allocation of domain names will occur on a first-come first-serve basis, taking into account the registries APM and RPM mechanisms.

18(c)(ii) Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

Incentive, Marketing and Outreach Programs

The Applicant will implement a number of incentive, marketing assistance, awareness and PR programs to assist the Registrar channel in providing a sector leading experience to end-users and to provide cost benefits for registrants. The Applicant will work with the global Registrar channel to ensure that the new gTLD offer is clearly visible on registrar sites resulting in an increase in the awareness and in the number of new gTLD registrations. Achieving this visibility requires (1) a clear business case and incentives for registrars to motivate them and (2) mechanisms and assets to make it easy for them to do so.

The Applicant will at the time of launch depending upon market conditions consider incentive programs that will deliver cost benefits to registrants through either the use of advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts or other similar methods. The Applicant is aware of Specification 9 – Registry Operator Code of Conduct, and will not directly or indirectly show any preference or provide any special consideration to any Registrar in its marketing efforts.

Example incentive mechanisms the Applicant will provide to the registrars may include:

Marketing Incentives

The Applicant intends to provide expertise, tools and creative assets to the registrars as part of general marketing and co-marketing programs. There is a significant cost saving if the expertise, tools and assets are developed centrally and the costs amortized across the registrar base. Significant cost savings can occur relating to Market Research, Social Customer Relationship Management (“SCRM”), Content Management Systems (“CMS”), Direct Marketing Tools, Marketing Collateral and Analytics Solutions.

The Applicant will employ some or all of the following marketing techniques jointly with registrars globally: (1) Direct Response Print, (2) General Web Marketing, (3) Email campaigns without Incentive, (4) Email with Incentive, (5) Email Marketing - Prospect List, (6) Email Marketing - Sponsored Newsletter, (7) Direct Marketing with Incentive, (8) Web Marketing with Incentive, (9) Viral Marketing (Social, Video, Micro-sites), (10) Develop User Interface Improvement best practices, (11) Develop Search Engine Optimization best practices, (12) Email Marketing - Registrar List
As an example of a marketing initiative, the Applicant will forward leads to the Registrars “buy” pages as an incentive via the means of Pay-Per-Click (“PPC”) search marketing. The Applicant will run multiple PPC campaigns targeting gTLD Registrants and point these to landing pages on the Registrar’s websites. Conversions are directly trackable from all PPC campaigns and keywords with a high Click-Through-Rate (“CTR”) or conversions will also be leveraged for SEO best practice purposes.

PR and Awareness Incentives:

In addition to the core outreach to the Registrar Channel, the Applicant will engage in a wider outreach to build awareness of the new gTLD with customers, end-users and other stakeholders. The Applicant will engage with a number of high profile individuals associated with the gTLD and will seek to reach end consumers through webcasts, podcasts, traditional broadcast TV as well as radio.

Provision of customer retention toolkits to Registrars:

The Applicant will use propensity modelling to build retention marketing programs to minimize churn whilst building renewal sustainability. The Applicant will develop econometric models designed to measure the likelihood of a customer segment to purchase a product or offer bundle, at a certain point in the relationship lifecycle. They are used to predict the best time, and the best combination of products, to offer to customers who match a certain profile. They are especially effective where there are large numbers of customers and reliable data can be gathered. The Applicant expects that registration volume in the gTLD will provide sufficient data for this modelling.

Measure, benchmark and improve the customer experience:

The Applicant will engage in a program to develop best practice policies related to the customer experience at differing levels of the channel. This will include the entire ecosystem from Registry through Registrar to Resellers and finally end-users. One key metric might be, for example, to reduce the number of clicks to make a purchase equivalent to the most customer friendly e-commerce sites in the world.
The Applicant might, for example, provide website performance tracking tools to registrars, which would benchmark current performance and provide insights into customers’ needs and behaviour at the point of purchase.
The Applicant will engage in a Social Customer Relationship Management Program to monitor social media feedback to questions, concerns or other issues. The Applicant will further seek to measure marketing communication expenditure and activity.

Other initiatives that will be considered by the Applicant in its outreach efforts:

(a) Customized Vertical Search App for major mobile platforms.
(b) Designated Twitter channel for the stakeholder community.
(c) Social Media outreach through Facebook and other social media solutions.

Translation into other languages:

At present, the Applicant plans to translate marketing collateral and other content that it considers to have geographically diverse appeal in to the 6 official UN languages, namely Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish.

18(c)(iii) Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The Applicant will follow the lifecycle and business rules found in the majority of gTLDs today. Our back-end operator has in excess of ten years of experience managing numerous gTLDs that utilize standard and unique business rules and lifecycles.

Initial registrations of registered names may be made in the registry in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, the registration term for registered names may not exceed ten (10) years. Further the renewal of registered names may be made in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, renewal of registered names may not extend their registration period beyond ten (10) years from the time of the renewal.

The Applicant plans to review domain name registration rates on an annual basis and will make a determination at that time regarding adjustments, depending upon market factors. Thus, at this time, the Applicant does not plan to make specific guarantees regarding pricing increases.

The Applicant will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the gTLD advance written notice of any price increase (including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars, unless such refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs are of a limited duration that is clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the registrar when offered) that complies with the requirements as outlined in the New gTLD Registry Agreement.
-end-

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.dotafrica	DotConnectAfrica Trust	yahoo.com	View

I: . DCA as the applicant for the DotAfrica gTLD has taken great care to develop the most fair registration policy possible. It will offer a phased launch consistent with ICANN requirements to ensure the protection of Trademark holders and the satisfaction of potential registrants. According to the Applicant’s Guidebook, all new gTLD registries will be required to use the Trademark Clearing House to support its pre-launch or initial launch rights protection mechanisms. According to ICANN, these RPMs, at a minimum must consist of a Trade Marks Claims Service and a Sunrise Process.

The ICANN-mandated Sunrise period open to Trademark holders will precede a Landrush or Premium Name availability period during which applicants are able to register their interest for various domain names. The Landrush phase will be followed by General Availability, during which time domain names will become available for purchase by any entity.

Multiple applications for a particular domain name would be resolved depending on the determination of what the domain name represents. For a standard domain name, it would be necessary to first of all ensure that the legal rights of third parties have been fully protected, for example, if there are no conflicting trademark claims, multiple applications will be resolved on a first-come⁄first-served basis if such names are not considered as premium domain names. However, if such multiple applications for a particular domain name appertain to what the DCA DotAfrica gTLD Registry considers as a ‘premium domain name’, then, after also ensuring that the legal rights of third parties have been fully protected, an auction process would naturally be used to resolve such situations. The procedures for conducting the auction will be defined and agreed with the Auction House that will be retained to provide the service of selling (auctioning) the premium domain names.

It is expected that an auction will help raise sizable revenues accruing to the coffers of DCA Registry Services that will assist in funding the non-profit⁄charitable objectives of DCA Trust.

It is important to stress that all post-Sunrise registrations at the time of General Availability will be subject to a first come first served basis.

II: In our estimation, cost benefits for users and registrants starts with a standardized and competitive pricing model. The prices for standard domain names offered during the time of General Availability will be similar to the price of gTLD domain names such as dotcom, dotnet, dotorg that are readily affordable by a large majority of domain name registrants in Africa. Domain name pricing will be reviewed in accordance with the policies set by the Registry, subject of course to the mandatory ICANN-approved guidelines governing the price increases of domain names⁄renewal pricing.

To increase domain name registrations, different cost benefit and cost saving incentives will be used to attract registrants to register domain names in the TLD. This will be part of the marketing and sales strategy. There will be regular promotions for registrars, and various incentives will be offered such as special introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts, and product service packages that combine for example, domain names with certain number of web-email addresses, FTP accounts, etc. However, such promotional activities will be performed for short durations, for example over a 30-day period.

The examples of promotional opportunities that could be readily exploited are as follows:

1. During the general availability period shortly after the Sunrise period, DotAfrica domain names will be offered at highly discounted prices in the first few days via promotional campaigns on a first come first served basis
2. DCA Registry will enter into agreements with DotAfrica domain name registrars to offer discounts on bundles of DotAfrica domain names sold together with ccTLD domain names in line with our goal of cross marketing DotAfrica domain names with ccTLDs domain names. For example, DCA DotAfrica Registry Services will enter into partnerships with a given country-code TLD such as Kenyan ccTLD - .ke (or Ethiopian ccTLD - .et) to sell DotAfrica domain names at a discounted price of say, $5 if a customer buys them as a bundle with a .ke ccTLD domain name. Similarly, a customer who buys a .ke domain name will also get the chance to buy a DotAfrica domain name at $5. This will happen shortly after the Sunrise period and will last for a limited duration subject to agreements reached with participating ccTLD registries, DotAfrica registrars and resellers.
3. DCA Registry will also launch domain promotions during events such as the African Cup of Nations, and several major continental sports meetings like athletics (e.g. All African Games), volleyball, basketball, golf, etc. that will be valid throughout the eventʹs period during which DotAfrica domain names will be acquired at discounted prices.
4. There will be generous discounts on bulk purchases of DotAfrica domain names that meets a certain threshold, for example $60.
5. Other promotions of benefit to registrant’s will include offering branded DotAfrica merchandise such as T-shirts, flash disks, and other promotional gift items to winners in a draw.
6. Special DotAfrica Football Promotions (Africans have a passion for football hence this provides a natural avenue for branding and promotional activities) e.g. offering hugely discounted DotAfrica domain names whenever an African team is playing, during major football tournaments such as the African Champions League where African teams are participating.
7. DCA Registry will launch the DotAfrica Pioneers Program that will award 100 Premium Domain names with 2-year registrations for free to 100 Pioneers from Africa with proposals on how to develop those domain names for the benefit of Africa. The guidelines for the Pioneers Program will be published soon after the completion of the Sunrise period.

It is therefore anticipated that individual Internet users in Africa shall constitute the largest category that stands to benefit most from the introduction and general availability of the DotAfrica generic Top Level domain names for the following reasons:

a) DotAfrica affords them an opportunity to acquire the best and most descriptive domain names to brand products and services.
b) Competitive pricing that is commensurate with the income levels of most Africans. The intended registration cost of US$10.00 per standard domain name will no doubt improve affordability when compared to the prices offered by ccTLDs for the country level domain names.
c) The DotAfrica generic Top-Level Domain will bring global best practice in DNS registry management to the African continent that simplifies registration via the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) registry system.

One cost benefit for users and registrants is the innovative form of payment that has been proposed for the settlement of domain name service transactions. In a continent where card banking facilities and the use of credit⁄debit cards are not widespread, electronic payments for e-commerce is often an important hurdle to overcome. With this recognition therefore, DCA DotAfrica Registry will use normal online and banking payment methods, and at the same time, in cooperation with registrars and technology service providers, DCA DotAfrica Registry will work strenuously to integrate mobile payment systems such as MPESA (developed by Safaricom and widely used in Kenya) across the entire registrar and domain reseller network within the first three years. This will greatly expand payment options and access as well as lead to increase of registration of domain names since Africa is still mostly a mobile continent and with the aim of making domain name purchase and renewal transactions as convenient and painless as possible whilst reducing transaction costs. DCA and Safaricom have already entered into a framework Memorandum of Understanding which accepts that the MPESA mobile payment system developed by Safaricom Ltd. for payment⁄money transfers within Kenya could be utilized as a payment system for the settlement of DotAfrica domain name sales transactions, and also commits both parties to further develop this model and used in other markets within the African continent.

In addition to the above, other anticipated benefits would accrue to different potential stakeholders based on the strategic partnerships that DCA intends to establish with ISPs, IXPs, Association of ccTLDs in Africa, etc.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and IXPs: DCA intends to build strategic partnerships with over 200 ISPs and the 21 IXP’s which exist in Africa and offer a variety of services including website hosting, domain registration services, including providing name servers to new domain name registrants and future sales channels⁄shop fronts for DotAfrica domain names. DCA intends to use successful venture to market its domains and also offer services to the niche currently not reached by other telephone networks.

Global and African Registrars and Registrar Associations; DCA will work closely with the developed ICANN accredited registrars within the continent to build a cross-marketing relationships that will result in a great increase in the number of DotAfrica domain sales within the continent. Global Registrars such as United Domains among many others already understand the huge potential of the African domain name market and have been actively involved in disseminating information on DCA and undertaking pre-registration of DotAfrica domain names.

Since a core aim of DCA’s Charitable Mission and Purpose is to channel any surplus financial proceeds from the DotAfrica gTLD Registry Services operation to the DCA Trust Fund to invest in, and develop Internet social development projects in Africa, it is also envisaged that some of the funds earmarked for such purposes shall be availed from the Trust Fund and used to provide financial support to Registrars in Africa in order to assist in building their technical capacity in domain names sales and marketing.

ccTLD Managers and Associations: The African Domain Name industry is typified by country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) registry operators with very low domain name registration volumes. When compared to the number of Internet users, there is a huge untapped potential. The problems faced by the African Domain Name industry include:

1. The ccTLD “crisis” in Africa: Lack of Awareness of the potential of African ccTLDs
2. Steep Pricing - The high cost of ccTLD Domain Names: African ccTLD Domains cost an average of $80 from our estimation, leading to the low uptake of domain names. Thus users prefer to obtain the other generic Top Level Domain Names from North American registries which costs about US$10.00 on average.
3. Technical issues DNS Infrastructure: African domain registrants who resort to ccTLD domains normally face archaic or manual domain registration procedures that take 24 hours to a few weeks in some cases.
4. Dispute Resolution in African ccTLD Namespaces: There are no legal structures in many African countries that can handle domain name dispute resolution. Copyright laws are weak in most countries, and legal systems in most countries need to be reformed.
5. Registry Governance. There are issues with ccTLD management and governance policies where there is still a level of government control in some instances and registration policies sometime reflect governmental interference.
6. With the rapid depletion of most descriptive domain names that have already been registered by Internet users in regions with advanced Internet infrastructures, the African Internet users are faced with a choice of registering second rate domain names which are long and not easy to remember.

It is therefore anticipated that DCA DotAfrica Registry Services as the prospective registry operator of the DotAfrica gTLD will address all of the aforementioned short-comings, and to this end, proposes to have a close working relationship with the existing ccTLD managers and association of TLDs in Africa. (See for example, .http:⁄⁄www.circleid.com⁄posts⁄20111217_dotconnectafrica_expresses_commitment_to_work_with_african_cctlds⁄ ). This will be a critical entry point that would enable the faster introduction of DotAfrica gTLD domain names to the individual countries, and will also be used in a cross marketing model to avail the DotAfrica domain names to the ccTLD registries.

DCA has already outlined a win-win outcome for African ccTLD managers who responded enthusiastically towards forging a working relationship that will not only avail DotAfrica domain names and increase the relevance of the struggling ccTLD’s that suffer from operational, financial and governance issues. The DCA Registry has proposed a cross marketing model that will see partial revenue proceeds from the DotAfrica namespace reinvested in strengthening African ccTLDs with weak administrative and technical infrastructure. DCA hopes to assist in building the capacity of African ccTLDs by utilizing any surpluses accruing to its Trust Fund for the achievement of such objectives. Finally, in our measures to protect geographic domain names at the second level, we have also proposed assigning country names in any language including the ISO3166 two letter codes to their respective ccTLD registries for their use in branding their country’s resources or developing new business around those domains under the new DotAfrica gTLD.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, it is important to clarify that, In keeping with its mission and purpose of ensuring equality⁄non-preferential treatment in customer service delivery, DCA DotAfrica gTLD registry intends to focus only on providing registry services for the delegated DotAfrica gTLD and will not be encumbered, for example, like a ccTLD registry service that is also wishing to apply for, and administer a continental gTLD. The potential conflict of interest would be rather obvious and such a ccTLD registry that, on one hand is dedicated to serving a particular country domain market, will find that its country-specific mandate would conflict with that of running the registry operation of a continental gTLD in the overall delivery of its customer services. As an independent organization, DCA believes that a ccTLD registry with governmental connections and ownership (which would make it lack any broad independence since it is on a national mission) should not be seen as also serving a continental gTLD.

III: The new gTLD Registry Services Agreement with ICANN has a term of ten (10) years, and since all domain name registrations within the TLD will be subject to the gTLD registry services agreement with ICANN, registrars will also be offered the option of obtaining initial domain name registrations that will not exceed ten (10) years. Due to the effect of possible inflation and other cost escalations that could be imposed by macro-economic conditions outside the control of the registry operator, for example fluctuations in the global price of energy that affects transportation and freight costs, and the price of different commodities, possible escalations or adjustments in the price of domain names are inevitable over a 10-year period. However, these would be managed in such a way that any price increases are justified and gradual. If there are any planned increases in the price of domain names, registrants will be given a 6 month to 1-year prior notification, and the general prevailing rate of inflation within the economy will be used to determine the magnitude of price escalations but in no event will this exceed 5 – 10 per cent per annum. To ensure that any revisions to agreements with registrars are in conformity with the stipulations of the new gTLD Agreement, any such revisions will be approved in advance by ICANN. Similarly, any planned price increases for registry services will be first approved in advance by ICANN before registrars are notified, and the price increases implemented.

To ensure that proper processes are followed and nothing is done outside the oversight of ICANN, all Registry-Registrar Agreements and relations between registrars registering domain names in the TLD and the registry operator will be governed by the stipulations contained in Article 2.9 of the ICANN gTLD Registry Agreement. Similarly, the pricing for registry services and any price increases shall be subject to the stipulations contained in Article 2.10 of the ICANN gTLD Registry Agreement. For example, there will be uniform pricing for renewals of domain name registrations for all registrars, and the registry operator will ensure that there will be no abusive and⁄or discriminatory pricing practices that will be imposed on registrars. In the same vein, no arbitrary price increases or unnecessary costs will be imposed on consumers.

Without prejudice to any of the aforementioned, as per Article 6.4 of the new gTLD Agreement any fees adjusted at ICANN’s discretion will be proportionately and transparently passed on to registrars and users at the time of communicating renewal pricing to users and registrants.