25 Others Ask ICANN for “Packaged” IDN TLD Applications — VeriSign and

Request asks for bundling of multiple transliterations and translations of fresh gTLDs in applications.

VeriSign is amongst 26 signatories on a letter (pdf) to ICANN requesting “packaged” top level domain name applications.

The group writes that “there is no mechanism in the Guidebook that will support applicants that wish to offer multiple script versions of their community or product, whether ASCII or IDN, to serve the diverse needs of non-English and non-Latin script users.”

Two types of communities would benefit from bundled applications, the letter states. First are multi-script communities, such as some in North Africa where more than one script is used every day. Second are “smaller script” communities that are too modest to justify a $185,000 application. The group states these communities’ “languages might go extinct on the web” without bundled applications.

Basically, the signatories want an option in fresh gTLD applications to add transliterations or translations of their string at a reduced package price.