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Upcoming Publication of 2026 Round List of Evaluated Registry Service Providers

27 January 2026
By
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

As we work toward opening the 2026 Round of the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program, I would like to share an update about the upcoming publication of the List of Evaluated Registry Service Providers (RSPs). The list, which will be published on 30 January, will include organizations that have cleared evaluation and organizations that have cleared some, but not all, of the technical evaluations. This comprehensive list will provide the most up-to-date information on the status of RSP applicants for these services as of 28 January 2026, end of day UTC.

RSPs offer critical services – among them Domain Name System (DNS) service, Registration Data Access Protocol, and DNS Security Extensions – on behalf of a registry operator. Many gTLD registry operators rely on a third-party RSP to manage their technical infrastructure. The program ensures that RSPs have the proper technical qualifications to run the infrastructure of a gTLD.

To complete the evaluation process, RSP applicants must go through two phases of technical evaluation – technical screening (i.e., documentation review) and technical testing. The latter is accomplished through Registry System Testing version 2.0, an automated service that RSP applicants run against their own systems.

The published List of Evaluated RSPs will include applicants that have cleared technical screening and testing, as well as those that have cleared technical screening yet are still in the process of clearing technical testing. While bugs encountered may have impeded some applicants from completing testing in the past, these issues have been addressed.

All new gTLD applicants are encouraged to identify the successfully evaluated RSP they intend to work with when submitting their application to avoid potential delays in processing. However, an applicant may submit their application without specifying the RSP by choosing to do so before Applicant and Application Evaluation.

ICANN org requires additional time to publish the RSP, Internationalized Domain Name Services, and additional Registry Services applications to the List of Evaluated RSPs. These applications are expected to be published in early March 2026.

This List of Evaluated RSPs will be updated on an ongoing basis as the applicants progress through the evaluation process. ICANN org encourages RSP applicants to complete their technical testing in a timely manner and stands ready to support them as needed.

A second RSP evaluation period will run concurrently with the 2026 Round application window that is expected to open in April 2026. More information about the RSP Evaluation Program is available on the program website.

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

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