Comments on deployment of internationalized top level domains

[Abdulaziz Al-Zoman <zoman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Tina Dam,

First of all, we would like to express our gratefulness to ICANN
for their continuous efforts to support internationalized domain
names (IDN) and for their openness to receive our comments and
suggestions. Thus, we would like to put forward our comments
regarding the deployment of internationalized top level domains,
particularly, on the Proposal for Internationalizing ccTLD Names,
By Chinese Domain Name Consortium (CDNC).

These comments are from the Steering Committee of the Arabic Domain
Names Pilot Project (www.arabic-domains.org).

We have read the proposal submitted by the Chinese Domain Name
Consortium (www.icann.org/announcements/idn-tld-cdnc.pdf) and
agree with the principles when deploying IDN that are outlined
on the proposal, namely:

*  Give the priority to internationalizing ccTLDs. To ensure the
   system stability, itâs recommended to internationalize ccTLD
   before internationalize gTLD.

*  For convenience purpose, only one form of language character
   variant of internationalized ccTLD is accepted. Considering
   that some countries or regions may have character variants,
   only one form of character sets shall be chosen for IDN use
   by each sponsored registry.

*  Supported by their own governments, ccTLD registries or
   authorized agencies make their own choice of which IDN
   character sets for their ccTLDs.

*  Register and operate the internationalized ccTLDs in the root
   DNS server in the form of IDNA Punycode.

Currently, the Arabic domain names pilot project (www.arabic-
domains.org) is open for all the Arabic-speaking countries
(22 members of the Arab League). There are now about 6 countries
participating on the project and more to come. The project is
working according to the guidelines for an Arabic domain name
system (www.arabic-domains.org/docs/guidelines.pdf) in which the
Arabic character set table has been defined and a set of Arabic
top-level domain has been listed.

We strongly believe that concerns and issues regarding IDN
implementations would be addressed when internationalizing
ccTLDs are supported following the above principles.


Thank you for giving us the chance to express our opinion.


Best regards,

On behave of the Arabic Domain Names Pilot Project

Dr. Abdulaziz H. Al-Zoman
Chairman of the Steering Committee (AND Pilot Project), and
Director of  SaudiNIC (.sa ccTLD Registry)
zoman@xxxxxxxxxx