auDA and Ausregistry price drop on com.au and net.au domains

[Rhythm]

http://www.auda.org.au/news-archive/auda-26022009/

auDA today announced that it has extended its au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry.

The extension of the term is the direct result of the independent Industry Competition Panel that was established by .au Domain Administration (auDA) in May 2008. The panel was appointed by auDA to review auDA’s competition model for the Australian Domain Name Industry and provide recommendations to the auDA board on what changes (if any) should be made to the competition model.

Among the many recommendations of the Panel was the following;

“Recommendation 2: The Panel recommends that auDA negotiates with the current registry operator with a view to extending the current registry licence term by up to 4 years. Such an extension should be subject to agreement being reached on (a) a suitable pricing model and (b) the inclusion of all items that auDA would require in a new license.”

Chris Disspain, CEO of auDA said, “Based on the recommendations of the independent panel we entered into discussions with AusRegistry to renegotiate the Licence Agreement. I am delighted we have been able to reach agreement. auDA believes that AusRegistry continues to excel in its role as Registry Operator and provides unprecedented support and competitive pricing for the .au namespace.”

The major points of the renegotiated Licence Agreement include;
• extended Customer Support Hours for Registrars
• funding towards Marketing and Market Research
• a $0.25 donation to the auDA Foundation for every .com.au and .net.au domain renewal and new registration
• the implementation of DNSSEC
• commitment to yearly independent Security Audits
• continued improvement and enhancement of the Registry Software
• new pricing that sees a drop in the wholesale price to $14 (for a 2 year licence) for com.au and net.au domains and further drops as volumes increase

AusRegistry CEO, Adrian Kinderis, said, “We are obviously extremely happy to have reached agreement to extend the licence. We are very proud of the role we have preformed as Registry Operator since 2002 and look forward to continuing to show the world the .au is at the forefront of Domain Name Registry technology.”

About auDA

.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is an Australian not-for-profit company vested with the responsibility of operating the .au domain for the benefit of all stakeholders.
In its role as manager of the .au domain, auDA carries out the following functions:
• develop and implement domain name policy
• license 2LD registry operators
• accredit and license registrars
• implement consumer safeguards
• facilitate .au Dispute Resolution Policy
• represent .au at ICANN and other international fora.

 

[Rhythm]

Interesting quote from another article:

To make matters worse, Ausregistry has just had its contract renewed to manage the .au registry. It’s estimated that this agreement will be worth at least $40m over the next 4 years and even though auDA is bound to put the contract out to tender this was not done.

 

[Ross]

Just in case you're wondering the article being reffered to is here

http://whizzbangsblog.com/index.php/20090227511/Domain-Industry/auDA-a-law-unto-themselves.html

I typed the sentence into Google and found the original post... just to save everyone the effort.

There is actually a lot of info out there regarding AUDA and what happend in the early days of registering AU domain names. Interestingly, many of the people who own the premium domain names used to be on the board of AUDA.

But yeh, like any monopoly i'm sure there is a lot of stuff that's happening behind the scenes. However, with the dismissal of Shane Honey (who is probably pissed at what happend) and the court action... i'm sure details will start to emerge.

I think this is a GREAT thing... because "black boxes" tend to be good for minority of privileged individuals at the expense of the majority.

Also it's interesting that AUDA did not tender the Ausregistry contract out... any thoughts anyone?

 

[soj]

it says a new pricing drop of wholesale to $14 a domain for a 2 year licence, what does that mean for retail pricing of domain registering? what is the current wholesale price?

 

[Rhythm]

Retail depends on the registrars. Current wholesale is $20.35.

 

[soj]

So just say a retail price is $38 now, with the new change it SHOULD bring the price down to $32, lets just hope some of the registrars get a little more competitive and drive the price down.

 

[Ross]

I'm paying $25 for my domain names... so after the decrease it will be around $19... that's assuming that they will pass the full savings.

It's fully possible that they may only reduce the price by $5 and keep an extra $1 for themselves.

Most people won't know the difference.

But yeh, across 100+ domain names... the new price does make a difference.

 

[DavidL]

The price drop should be great news! Might take a little while for the wholesale price to be passed on but it certainly will based on the current level of registrar competition.

Interested to see how much funding goes into marketing. That's something that can always be improved IMO. Move some of the funds currently thrown at ineffective policing of poor over-regulated policy into making sure 'John-the-plumber' reg's a .au rather than a .com!

 

[neddy]

Just noticed that Hostess have reduced their price to $20.95 for an .au domain for 2 years. Not too bad at all!

Cheers, Ned

 

[DomainMarketPlace]

Just noticed that Hostess have reduced their price to $20.95 for an .au domain for 2 years. Not too bad at all!

Cheers, Ned

I wonder what sort of support you get for 50c?

 

[geodomains]

You would get a nice control panel and a Indian to talk to most likely