VeriSign increases .com and .net fees

VeriSign have announced that as of October 1, 2008, they will be increasing domain name fees for .com and .net, per its agreements with ICANN. The registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.42 to $6.86 and that the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $3.85 to $4.23.While this increase is in line with its agreement with ICANN that allows VeriSign to increase the cost of domain names to registrars by seven per cent annually, the increases go in a different direction with most, if not all, ccTLDs who are progressively decreasing the fees they charge to registrars and registrants.

VeriSign justify the increase on the ongoing need for .com and .net infrastructures to be continually fortified and scaled to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks and to help protect against service disruptions. Undoubtedly true, but then VeriSign are also selling many more domain names than previously.

As previously mentioned, and part of Project Titan, VeriSign is increasing the capacity of its global Internet infrastructure by ten times by the year 2010. Additionally, VeriSign will increase its daily DNS query capacity from 400 billion queries a day to over 4 trillion queries a day and will increase the aggregate network bandwidth of its primary resolution centers around the world from more than 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) to greater than 200 Gbps per second. VeriSign will also expand its deployment of Regional Internet Resolution Sites to more than 100 locations across the globe by 2010. VeriSign is also deploying new proprietary security upgrades and monitoring tools to identify, track and isolate malicious Internet traffic generated from cyber attacks.

VeriSign’s news release announcing the increase in domain name fees is available at www.verisign.com/press_releases/pr/page_043470.html.

To beat the price increase in .com and .net domain names, go to America Registry now to renew your domain names or buy that new domain name you were looking for.

VeriSign also sent the following advice of the increase to Registrars:
To All Registrars,
VeriSign, Inc. and it’s wholly owned subsidiaries (”VNDS”) is hereby
notifying all registrars of a fee change for .com and/or .net domain names
effective October 1, 2008. In accordance with our contract, ICANN has
already been notified. Details as follows:
1. VNDS’ fee for each annual increment of a new and renewal .com domain name registration and for each transfer of a .com domain name registration from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another will be US $6.86, exclusive of any ICANN Variable Registry-Level Fee (as defined in the .com Registry Agreement) or any other ICANN fee; and

2. VNDS’ fee for each annual increment of a new and renewal .net domain name registration and for each transfer of a .net domain name registration from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another will be US $4.23, exclusive of any ICANN Variable Registry-Level Fee (as defined in the .net Registry Agreement) or any other ICANN fee.
Except for the above-described fee changes, all other terms of the relevant agreements (.com and .net Registry Agreements and Registry-Registrar Agreements) remain unchanged.
Please contact Customer Affairs Office at cao@verisign-grs.com if you have specific questions regarding this notice.

Best regards,
PJ Bolanos
Vice President, Customer Support
VeriSign, Inc.
info@verisign-grs.com