[LINK] Re: .asn.au Domain Name Registrations (fwd)

[Mark Hughes]

Actually, the situation according to auDA's Registry request for tender
appears to be that the Registry (not the Registrar) will pay auDA:

* $15,000 Once-off Set-up Fee
* Annual Fee equal to a maximum of $1.60 per domain name
* Domain Name Fee of $11 for each domain name registered or renewed for
two years (equivalent to $5.50 per year)

So the recurrent costs will be a maximum of $7.10 per year per domain
name (actually $6.50 p.a. if there are less than 15,000 domain names in
the 2LD.  auDA uses these funds to run its operations, develop / review
policy, dispute resolution, run the whois server, etc.

As a regulatory authority, auDA's expenses should be reasonably
consistent over time; they certainly wouldn't be expected to rise at the
same rate as domain name registrations - currently around 20% - 25%
growth p.a. for .au domain names I believe.  So if the number of domain
names doubles, the cost per domain name to support the regulatory
infrastructure should halve - down to a maximum of about $3.50 per
domain.

BTW, one of the reasons there's bugger all registrations under id.au at
the moment is that the users are forced to register their domains at the
fourth level - e.g. xxx.fauna.id.au.  There just ain't no demand for
domains at that level.

For those interested in deeper discussion of domain name issues the
dns@auda.org.au discussion list (see http://www.auda.org.au/list/dns/)
may be more appropriate than Link.  Two issues I have raised there:

* Many non-profit organisations have far more resources than for profit
SMEs - for example, see www.asfa.asn.au and www.horizon.org.au.  Is is
ethical to ask Australian SMEs with com.au domain names to subsidise the
domain names of these entities?  Same issue applies to individuals.
Anyone support the idea of Australian SMEs subsidising Kerry Packer if
he wants an id.au domain name?
* In the long term there may well be more individuals with .au domain
names than for-profit companies.  After all, there's a helluva lot more
people than there are companies.  Is is ethical to expect the minority
of users to subsidise the majority?


Regards, 


Mark Hughes
Effective Business Applications Pty Ltd
effectivebusiness@pplications.com.au
+61 4 1374 3959
www.pplications.com.au



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-link@www.anu.edu.au [mailto:owner-link@www.anu.edu.au] On
Behalf Of Tony Barry
Sent: Monday, 29 October 2001 04:52
To: Craig Sanders
Cc: Mail List - LINK
Subject: Re: [LINK] Re: .asn.au Domain Name Registrations (fwd)


At 4:30 PM +1100 29/10/01, Craig Sanders wrote:
>the figures i've seen are that auDA will be charging $15,000 setup fee
>for anyone who wants to be an .id.au registrar, plus $12 per domain.

I doubt if any of these have more than a few hundred people 
registered with them so this would kill them stone dead.

Tony
-- 
phone  +61 2 6241 7659
mailto:me@Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
http://tony-barry.emu.id.au/people/tony/index.html