ICANN New gTLD 2026 Round Underway: With You Global Steps Forward as Istanbul’s Sole Applicant Under the Applicant Support Program

The global domain name ecosystem is on the precipice of its most significant transformation in more than a decade. With the formalization of the ICANN New gTLD Next Round (2026) schedule and applicant guidelines, the internet community is opening the doors to a new era of root-zone expansion.

Istanbul: At the Crossroads of Global Internet Governance

Geographically and culturally positioned as the bridge between continents, Istanbul plays a central and strategic role in global internet governance. As home to one of ICANN’s three primary Global Regional Hubs (alongside Los Angeles and Brussels), Istanbul acts as the administrative and coordination nexus for the entire Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

Yet, despite the city’s preeminence as a diplomatic and technological hub, independent registry applicants originating from this region have historically been underrepresented in the global root zone.

The Applicant Support Program (ASP): Grounded in Equity and Public Interest

The core promise of the ICANN Next Round is that the domain name system must reflect genuine global diversity—not merely concentrated capital or legacy multi-registry conglomerates. To turn this vision into reality, ICANN established the Applicant Support Program (ASP), offering dedicated evaluation frameworks, financial fee reductions, and specialized technical support for qualifying organizations from developing regions and underserved communities.

With You Global’s qualification under the ASP framework represents the foundation of our organization. We applied under ASP because we believe root-zone stewardship must be accessible, transparent, and driven by public interest commitments rather than speculative domain hoarding.

Through the ASP, our applications for .DEPLOY and .ATLAS adhere strictly to ICANN’s Public Interest Commitments (PICs), committing to:

• Non-Discriminatory Registrar Access: Equal, transparent pricing and EPP access for all ICANN-accredited registrars worldwide.
• Proactive Abuse Mitigation: Automated telemetry and rapid takedown SLAs for phishing, botnet command & control, malware, and DNS abuse.
• Universal Acceptance (UA): Complete adherence to UASG standards, ensuring internationalized identifiers resolve seamlessly across all global software stacks.

Deeply Cognizant of Our Responsibility: Infrastructure Over Speculation

Securing and operating Top-Level Domains is among the highest privileges in internet engineering. An authoritative TLD is not a marketing asset; it is critical internet infrastructure upon which developers, enterprises, institutions, and millions of future end-users will place their digital identities.

As Istanbul’s sole applicant, we are acutely aware of the rigor required. We have engineered our technical architecture from day one to exceed ICANN Specification 10 performance benchmarks:

Two Purpose-Driven Namespaces: .DEPLOY and .ATLAS

Our portfolio addresses two foundational pillars of the next-generation digital economy:

1. .DEPLOY — Developer & Cloud Infrastructure:
The modern software delivery lifecycle requires clear semantic identity. .DEPLOY is engineered specifically for continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, cloud-native container registries, automation tools, and developer platforms. It transforms opaque runtime URLs into concise, intuitive, and cryptographically verified digital endpoints.

2. .ATLAS — Universal Navigation, Mapping & Spatial Knowledge:
From geographic information systems (GIS) and autonomous navigation to digital cartography and spatial computing commons, .ATLAS establishes a universal home for geospatial knowledge. Built with strict Specification 5 protections for geographical and sovereign identifiers, .ATLAS balances open utility with rigorous global safeguards.

The Path Ahead: An Open Invitation to Registrars & Community Partners

The road to 2026 root-zone delegation requires sustained collaboration across registrars, software engineers, and internet policy advocates. As the Next Round operational milestones unfold, With You Global is actively onboarding ICANN-accredited registrars to our 24/7 OT&E testbed and establishing strategic partnership frameworks.

We invite accredited registrars, developers, and internet infrastructure stakeholders worldwide to connect with our registry operations desk, explore our technical documentation, and join us in building resilient root-zone diversity.