Domain Food - Archive - ICANN has no plan in place for new TLDs

There was some interesting coverage of the ICANN meeting last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over on http://ICANNwatch.org

Something that really caught my eye is this news, that despite repeated and continued promises to the the US Commerce Department for a method to add new TLDs, ICANN is completely unprepared (and apparently unaware) for the September 30th, 2004 deadline.

Basically there is a "Memorandum of Understanding" (aka MoU) between ICANN and the Department - created back in November 1998 - that has been repeatedly extended without good cause over the years.

Here is a facinating letter from members of the US Congress back in 2002 urging these extensions to be "earned" and not easily granted:

And here is an article that covers the last extension of the MoU in more detail.

Among the important issues listed:
So now, once again, a couple of months before the deadline with no plan in place, and it's supposed to be implemented by December. Will ICANN get another extension and continue the parody? If so, why do they deserve to milk the registrars for more money if they are not doing what they promised for over 5 years now?