[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] DEMAND THAT ICANN REFUSE ANY .COM PRICE INCREASE

[Arturo Moncada Torres]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) 
recentlyannounced 
<https://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2018/ntia-statement-amendment-35-cooperative-agreement-verisign>that 
it would “permi[t] Verisign to pursue with ICANN an up to 7% increase in 
the prices for .com domain names”, but it*does not*of course, compel 
ICANN to agree to any such increases. Any such decision regarding .com 
pricing remains with ICANN.

Demand that ICANN REFUSE a potential price increase on .COM domains!

Verisign is entitled to a reasonable fee for running the registry on 
behalf of ICANN. Verisign currently charges*$7.85 per .com domain name 
per year. *The cost to operate the registry, after taking into account 
the expensive infrastructure necessary to provide reliable and secure 
operations and high overhead, has been estimated at*$1.00 
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/dotcom_domains_pricing/> to$3.50 
<https://domainnamewire.com/2018/09/11/verisign-coperative-agreement/> per 
domain name per year.*

If the proposed fee increases go into effect, by the end of the six-year 
agreement term, the fee for each .com domain name will increase to 
$10.29 per year,a 30% jump from current levels 
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/dotcom_domains_pricing/>.  
Even conservatively assuming that in six years’ time there are only 140 
million .com domain name registrants instead of the current 138 million, 
that increase of $2.44 per year, per domain name, would result 
in*$341,000,000*more revenue for Verisign per year. That money would 
come out of the pockets of .com registrants like you.

Higher fees for Verisign are not justified, as demonstrated by the 
following four key points:

1.  Verisign is a provider of technical registry services, it does not 
own the .com name space;
2.  Unlike Verisign's fees, the prices set by registrars and domain name 
investors are held in check by competition;
3.  Verisign is already well-paid for its services, as evidenced by its 
substantial profits; and
4.   ICANN need not approve fee hikes; on the contrary, ICANN ought to 
assert its right to set reasonable fee levels for its hired registry 
manager.
Make your voice heard and join us by signing the petition to REFUSE any 
attempted price increase by Verisign!

*We, the millions of .com domain name registrants all over the world, 
stand to lose the most from a .com price increase, and we DEMAND THAT 
ICANN REFUSE ANY .COM PRICE INCREASE.*

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