New gTLD Auction Rules

[Donna Austin <donna.austin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Russ

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Auction Rules for New gTLDs 
version 2013-12-12.

Our comments are not specifically related to the Auction Rules as drafted, but 
go to process and timing of the Auction events.

Timing of Auction Events
Our understanding from the Buenos Aires session on Auctions is that the Auction 
Events will occur on a Wednesday at UTC 1600.

Firstly, will the Wednesday be narrowed down to the first, second, third or 
fourth Wednesday or the month for each Auction Event or will this vary?

Secondly, we believe that UTC 1600 seriously disadvantages Bidders from the 
Asia Pacific Region given that the time is in the early hours of the morning. 
We provide the following table to demonstrate this point:
Location

Conversion UTC 1600

Daylight saving change over

Singapore

Midnight (SGT)

Midnight (SGT)

Melbourne

3am AEDT

2am (AEST)

Los Angeles

8am PST

9am (PDT)

New York

11am (EST)

Noon (EDT)

Brussels

5pm (CET)

6pm (CEST)

Istanbul

6pm (EET)

7pm (EEST)


We appreciate that in order to conduct an Auction Event, one time is necessary. 
However, as we believe the table above demonstrates, the UTC 1600 time 
represents a serious disadvantage to Bidders from parts of the Asia Pacific 
Region. We believe that, where possible, the timezone of the respective Bidders 
should be a factor in scheduling Auctions in an attempt to reduce the obvious 
disadvantage that participating in an Auction at 2am or 3am presents. As ICANN 
is entitled in its sole discretion to amend the Auction rules for any Auction 
at any time prior to the Deposit Deadline for that Auction we believe that this 
discretion could be used to apply some flexibility to scheduling.

Process Outline, timeline and responsibilities
It would be extremely helpful if ICANN could publish a document that outlined 
the Auction process from the time the Intent to Auction Notification is sent to 
Qualified Applicants through to ICANN announcing the winners and other details 
of each Auction Event. Trying to piece this information together from previous 
webinars and the current Auction Rules and other available documentation is 
challenging.

Given the Auction process is administratively complicated and has limited 
flexibility associated with a number of the requirements we believe it is 
imperative to the success of the Auction process that Qualified Applicants are 
provided with a document that clearly outlines all the steps in the process. 
This document does not have to nominate dates, but should represent known 
timeframes within the process; who is responsible for the various components; 
and when, how and to whom Qualified Applicants need to provide information.

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this issue.

Donna

[Description: Description: Description: ARI Logo]DONNA AUSTIN
Policy and Industry Affairs Officer

ARI REGISTRY SERVICES
Melbourne | Los Angeles
P  +1 310 890 9655
P  +61 3 9866 3710
E  donna.austin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:donna.austin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
W  www.ariservices.com<http://www.ariservices.com/>

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