Posted on Tuesday, April 10 2007 @ 1:11 CEST by Thomas De MaesschalckARS Technica writes .com prices will rise from $6 to $6.42 while .net prices will jump from $3.50 to $3.85:
In December of last year, ICANN and VeriSign inked an agreement allowing the company to keep control of the .com top-level domain through 2012. (VeriSign first gained control of .com in 1999 after it was awarded a no-bid contract). The agreement provides some control over price hikes, as it limits them to a maximum of seven percent in four out of the contract's six years. VeriSign must provide notice of the rate hikes at least six months prior to their going into effect.VeriSign claims the extra revenue will be used to expand the global capacity of its infrastructure ten-fold by 2010 and to improve security.
There may still be additional rate increases, however. VeriSign's contract with ICANN also allows for increases due to ICANN policy shifts or for security reasons during the two years when the regular price hikes are not allowed.
ICANN's agreement with VeriSign was the subject of criticism from some areas. Network Solutions called it a "perpetual de facto monopoly," saying that it failed to provide sufficient checks and balances. Network Solutions also said the agreement was "fundamentally flawed" from a cybersecurity point of view.
