I applied through tld.name, this was after reading some news article in June or July last year.
???
Look, I founded a company 4 years ago, that WILL go for a cityTLD.
I have been at all ICANN meetings since mid 2004. I sat in the GNSO meetings when the new RFP rules where made. You probably do not even know what a RFP is, or who GNSO is.
I have been in Dubai in Feb last year at the regional ICANN meeting, and spoke to Dubai officials. Dubia already aplied in the 2000 round for .dubai.
I bet 10 trillion dollars that you will NEVER ever in your live will be able to run the TLD .dubai! Because it will be operated by the same entity that operates .ae.
Ask yourself: Have you EVER been in Dubai? Have you ever attended a single ICANN meeting?
If you have to answer two "no's", then stop dreaming, please. You are NOT starting a gTLD just like that. Specially not a geoTLD. And specially not, if you have zero roots to that region.
I am sorry to disrupt your dream, but you are about 9 years to late. Imagine you go in a pub, explaining people that you are a domainer, and that you sell domains! And then a John Doe says: "Well, I will register sex.com tomorrow, and sell it to Plaboy". What would you think?
Right.
The reason I write this so sarcastic: To shy others away from dreaming the same dream. A new gTLD costs you about 2 million dollars, MINIMUM. The application fees alone are 250,000 Dollars (a quarter million) - nonrefundable!