New TLD Application System Offline Until?

ICANN’s new TLD application system is still offline and could remain so for the rest of the week.

The latest update from ICANN staff published last night which, unfortunately, doesn’t give much clarity in relation to timelines. The only time mentioned is 2359 this Friday, but that’s in relation to providing an update – not actually re-opening the system.

Here’s the full announcement:

The TLD application system, or TAS, was taken offline on Thursday, 12 April due to a technical issue.

We believe that we have fixed the glitch, and we are testing it to make sure.

ICANN is committed to reopening the application system as soon as we can confirm that the problem has been resolved and we have had proper time for testing.

We also want to inform all applicants, before we reopen, whether they have been affected by the glitch. We are still gathering information so we can do that.

Accordingly, the application system will not reopen tomorrow.

We will provide an update on the timing of the reopening no later than Friday, 20 April at 23.59 UTC.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.