The second ICANN New gTLD Program: 2026 Round RSP Evaluation Program runs from 30 April to 12 August 2026.
Additionally, Registry Service Providers that have cleared RSP Evaluation can be found on this List of Evaluated RSPs.
Background
The Registry Service Provider (RSP) Evaluation Program is a part of ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domains (New gTLD) Program: 2026 Round. The program is intended to reduce the cost and time involved in evaluating new gTLDs by separating the evaluation of the technical aspects of operating a gTLD from the application for the gTLD label. With the RSP Evaluation Program, RSPs will only be evaluated once regardless of the number of gTLDs to which they provide service.
The RSP Evaluation Program is the implementation of the policy recommendations under Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation of the Final Report on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process. This implementation was guided by the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (IRT). The following IRT meetings were specific to the RSP Evaluation Program:
Webinars and Presentations
- 1 October 2024 | RSP Evaluation Program Webinar 1 (presentation)
- Video recording
- Audio recording (AR, EN, FR)
- 2 October 2024 | RSP Evaluation Program Webinar 2 (presentation)
- Video recording
- Audio recording interpretation for English, Chinese, and Spanish is selectable from the Zoom application.
- 12 March 2025 | ICANN82 session on RSP and RST (presentation)
- 7 March 2026 | ICANN85 session on RSP (presentation)
Further Reading
The following information is available regarding some of the critical technical services provided to gTLDs by RSPs:
- Zone File Access (ZFA)
- Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS)
- Trademark ClearingHouse (TMCH)
- Registration Reporting Interface (RRI)
- Registry Data Escrow (RDE)
- Monitoring System API Specification (MoSAPI)
- Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)
- Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Status Codes
- The Domain Name System (DNS)
- DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
- Root Zone Management (RZM) User Guide
- Operations Handbook for Registry Operators