ICANN extends gTLD deadline over glitch

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has extended the deadline for the submission of applications for generic top-level domains (gTLDs), because of a bug in its application system.

Last year, the corporation decided to allow the creation of gTLDs, such as .qantas, .music and .sydney. Companies and groups of companies were able to put up their hands for the management of such domains, which cost US$185,000 for the application and a further fee of US$25,000 to be payable each year to hold the domain. On top of that, applicants will need to run a registry.

Despite the costs, many groups have jumped at the chance to have the domains; for example, the AFL, the NSW and Victorian governments, iiNet and not-for-profit organisations.

The deadline for applications was supposed to be today, but ICANN has now extended it. The corporation said that this was due to a report it received of "unusual behaviour" with the operation of the TLD application system, after which it identified a technical issue with the TAS software.

ICANN has shut down the system until next Tuesday to deal with the issue, and has therefore extended the deadline for applications to 11.59pm UTC on Friday, 20 April 2012.