Nominet announced recently that is intending to apply to become an ICANN accredited registrar.

You can read the announcement after the jump :

“In order to support our launch plans for .cymru and .wales, Nominet intends to apply to become an ICANN accredited registrar.

Existing ICANN accredited registrars will be able to sell the new gTLDs, but are not obliged to do so.  Given the scale of the gTLD expansion programme, –  which will see consumers and businesses offered a choice of over 1,000 domain suffixes from 2013 –  becoming an ICANN accredited registrar will guarantee a distribution channel for .cymru and .wales.

In accordance with ICANN rules, this will involve the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary.  We have no plans to sell other gTLDs (such as .com) through the subsidiary.

We will also be asking ICANN to review the current batching process to ensure that the Welsh applications are assessed together, and expect the issue of digital archery and batching to be discussed at next week’s ICANN meeting in Prague.”