ICANN Announces Successful String Evaluation for Libya IDN ccTLD

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the successful completion of String Evaluation of the proposed Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) country code top-level domain (ccTLD) string for Libya. The requester is now eligible to apply for string delegation. Details of the evaluation process are provided here: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-completion.

The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process enables countries and territories to submit requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs that represent their country or territory names in scripts other than Latin. It was approved by the ICANN Board in October 2009.

The process entails three steps:

• Preparation (by the requester in the country or territory): Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it will be run, and which organization will be running it, along with gathering all the required supporting documentation.
• String evaluation: Requests are evaluated in accordance with the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process.
• String delegation: Requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII-based ccTLDs.

As of the date of this announcement, 63 requests for a total of 44 countries/territories have successfully passed through the String Evaluation. Of these, 61 IDN ccTLDs representing 42 countries/territories have been delegated in the DNS root zone, with the remainder either readying to apply or actively applying for delegation of the string.

ICANN will continue to accept new string evaluation requests in the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. ICANN org staff is available to help countries and territories interested in participating in the Fast Track Process. Please email [email protected]for any inquiries for participation.

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address - a name or a number - into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.