ICANN enters into .net contract extension with Verisign – Domain Name Wire

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Andrew Allemann 2 Comments July 1, 2023
ICANN greenlights massive price increases for .net domains in contract renewal. ICANN logo
On Thursday, ICANN executed a renewal of a contract extension with Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) for running the .net registry. It extends the agreement to June 30, 2029.
The renewal allows ICANN to increase wholesale prices by 10% a year, over the objections of many people who submitted comments regarding the deal. The current wholesale price is $9.92, and the new agreement gives Verisign the right to increase prices to $19.31 at the end of the six-year term.
In 2005, ICANN put the .net registry contract out to bid, resulting in the wholesale fee dropping from $6.00 to $3.50. If put out to bid again, there’s little doubt that the lowest bids would be just a few dollars or less per year.
Categories: Policy & Law Tags: icann, VeriSign
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Mark Thorpe says
July 1, 2023 at 12:49 am
ICANN= Gong Show
B.Lambert says
July 4, 2023 at 5:14 am
The no-bid monopoly contract is inherently unstable. By wholly relying upon a single supplier the present system lacks true Security and Stability: no effort is made to designate any alternative operators or reserve contractors. Realistic contingency planning by ICANN should have redundant back-up suppliers poised to potentially takeover the VeriSign contract in the event of disaster [which, for example, could include non-technical but disqualifying moral lapses by their management, or exposure of a toxic dimension within their corporate culture]. Beyond any supposition, ICANN “invites the community to comment” – but when I did so, ICANN managed to erase this clearly-stated shortcoming from their summary & comments. Why? Is this comment (and another requesting VeriSign invest more on marketing IDN) so insignificant? I rather think it’s all predetermined whitewash, which appears corrupt to the core.
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