The purpose of the Pre-Delegation Testing is to verify that the applicant has met its commitment to establish registry operations in accordance with the technical and operational criteria described in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook (AGB). Each applicant will be required to complete Pre-Delegation Testing as a prerequisite to delegation into the root zone.

The test elements cover both DNS server infrastructure and registry system operations. The Pre-Delegation Testing process is described in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook [PDF, 5.88 MB], Section 5.2.

About Stiftelsen för Internetinfrastruktur (.SE): The Internet Infrastructure Foundation (.SE) is an independent organization for the benefit of the public that acts to promote the positive development of the Internet in Sweden. .SE is responsible for the Internet’s Swedish top-level domain, .se, encompassing domain name registration, and the administration and technical operation of the national domain name registry. Proceeds from domain name registrations are used to finance initiatives that promote the development of the Internet in Sweden, through proprietary operations and the financing of independent projects.

The service provider was selected out of a process of consideration in accordance with the Request for Proposals issued on 30 October 2012. Requirements for candidate service providers included: a demonstrated understanding of the critical registry functions (i.e., DNS, DNSSEC, EPP, Whois, Data escrow), operational experience necessary to deliver the testing services, ability to scale up on request, and experience designing, building, and operating robust and secure systems. ICANN received competitive proposals from several qualified firms, and is pleased to select .SE as the Pre-Delegation Testing provider for the new gTLD program.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-21dec12-en.htm