Tender for .au wholesale registrar

[DomainNames]

auDA must go out to tender for this and not just accept a request from foreign owned Neustar Inc USA / Ausregistry to stay in their role as wholesale registry.

16 years and no tenders and transparency is not good enough.

Where is the submission everyone can read it? It seems strange to rush this in a few weeks before the AGM and it is not on the agenda.

The Department of Communications and the ATO better think twice this time instead of just allowing the $10 million plus profits to go offshore every year from Australian wholesale domain name registrations, renewals and Change of registrant income.

I feel we need to see an Australian owned company with this role or auda or even the Department of Communications themselves. Better if the jobs and income are kep in Australia plus personal data and the national security of our Australian domain name system

https://www.auda.org.au/news/new-auda-news-post-4/

Statement from CEO of auDA, Cameron Boardman
Posted by Cameron Boardman on 14 November 2016

The auDA CEO would like to acknowledge receipt of a proposal from AusRegistry to continue as the registry operator of .au.

The Board of auDA has today resolved that the CEO evaluate this proposal and report back at the December meeting.

 

[DomainNames]

https://www.ausregistry.com.au/ausregistry-wins-au-tender/
http://www.tved.net.au/index.cfm?Si...Australian_Domain_Names___The_New_Regime.html

https://www.auda.org.au/industry-information/registry/

Registry
The registry comprises the following:

• a database of domain names registered in each 2LD
• a public WHOIS service for looking up the identity of the registrant of a domain name.

AusRegistry Pty Ltd is the registry operator for the open 2LDs (asn.au, com.au, id.au, net.au and org.au), the community geographic 2LDs (act.au, nsw.au, nt.au, qld.au, sa.au, tas.au, vic.au and wa.au) and 2 closed 2LDs (edu.au and gov.au).

AusRegistry was appointed the 2LD registry operator by way of open tender processes held in 2001 and 2005, and subsequent licence extensions in 2009 and 2013. ( No tenders undertaken by auDA)

 

[DomainNames]

http://www.afr.com/technology/neust...technologies-for-1185-million-20150730-gio26f
http://www.crn.com.au/news/118m-payday-for-melbourne-domain-name-firm-407350

$118m payday for Melbourne domain name firm

Melbourne company Bombora Technologies, which operates Australia’s .com.au domain registry, has been acquired for $118.5 million by US domain registry Neustar.

Bombora Technologies started as Ausregistry in 1999 and is responsible for operating Australia’s .au internet registry database, which includes more than 3 million registered domains.

 

[DomainNames]

I do hope this is very high on the AGM revised agenda for discussion and not just left to another auDA board meeting in December and another non tendered licence "extension" and profit giveaway overseas.

I would like to see the submission circulated on auDA website and to all members now.

I feel the contract should not been extended without public tender in 2008 and again in 2013. This appears to be questionable and the price paid by Neustar Inc. USA shows massive financial gains and profits are involved from australian domain name registrations. This money and profits are made from 3 million Australian domain name registrants who deserve free auDA membership, more information and votes!

 

[DomainNames]

Australian owned companies and even Australian Government Departments should be able to lodge tender responses this time plus everyone should be allowed to do surveys and ask questions.

Let's finally see some more transparency at auDA. Any conflicts of interest or possible financial gains and relationships should be disclosed and if appropriate stopped.

This is huge money at stake and it is better it goes back 100% into Australia or even back to the payng domain name registrants with lower domain name registration and renewal fees, NO COR fees, auDA fees etc.

$118 Million would have built a lot of Australian schools and so would the ongoing yearly profits that are being made which Neustar USA has admitted it now makes from this un tendered business deal ( auDA giveaway with no tenders?) !

 

[findtim]

If auda was to tender this and nobody else tendered then FINE, problem solved, but to just continually hand it to ausregistry is ludicrous.

another example of audas intention to only give lip service to change
tim

 

[Bacon Farmer]

Why can't they find an Australian owned solution?

 

[DomainNames]

Why can't they find an Australian owned solution?

Why doesn't the Australian Department of Communications run the whole thing? No auDA, No Ausregistry. More Transparency, More oversight. No money going overseas. Any profits made can be used in Australia for the good of Australia.

Dept of Coms have the staff, the Infrastructure and everything required already. No need for auDA or Ausregistry.

They could even run the drop service so there is just 1 transparent platform people need to use and bid at. Profits made again can be used in Australia for the benefit of Australians..... at the moment an auDA board member company seems to do very well from their drop catching service...
https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/internet


auDA gives back the $10 million profits they have in the bank now from domain name registrants via lower domain reg fees now.....

I would estimate some on this board may have given auDA several $hundreds of thousands in registration, renewal and COR fee profits over the years. They have made a fortune from me and everyone!

 

[snoopy]

Registrants will continue to pay well over the odds until this goes out to tender. I suspect the rate would come down by 60%+ if there was competition for that contract. No way should this be extended.

If new tlds can be offered for a couple of dollars there is no reason a large tld with economies of scale should be $20/2years for registrants.

 

[findtim]

This is what comes from no competition, no competition for auDA to perform and thus no need to do the obvious.
Any sophisticated business with a monopoly product like domain names should be looking for the best deal, best service and as a consequence it should go to tender.

tim

 

[Bacon Farmer]

I reckon if there were no pressure from foreign owners to grow profits there'd be no push for direct registrations from AUSregistry or should I say USAregistry?

 

[snoopy]

This is what comes from no competition, no competition for auDA to perform and thus no need to do the obvious.
Any sophisticated business with a monopoly product like domain names should be looking for the best deal, best service and as a consequence it should go to tender.

tim

Agree, AUDA had no real incentive to seek a better deal, lowering the wholesale price wouldn't have done anything for AUDA, in fact it would probably just have highlighted the fact that there own fees (The $3.85 + the fees is charges Ausregistry) are too high aswell.

I suspect this all may change due increased pressure on AUDA after the .au voting shenanigans. Extending the Ausregistry contract without a new tender is going to be a bad look if the new management wants to look progressive.

 

[findtim]

Extending the Ausregistry contract without a new tender is going to be a bad look if the new management wants to look progressive.

given resent events its hard to imagine they even care how things look
tim

 

[Lemon]

If new tlds can be offered for a couple of dollars there is no reason a large tld with economies of scale should be $20/2years for registrants.

This equates to $8.31 USD per year. I pay more for a dot com.

If new tlds can be offered for a couple of dollars

What tlds are these? And the ones that do offer a special deal for the first year end up being way more when it comes to renewal.

 

[snoopy]

This equates to $8.31 USD per year. I pay more for a dot com.

This is comparing two monopolies where market pricing has not occurred. i.e. both .com and .com.au have the same problem of a contract that should be going out to tender.

The way .com priced is not the "market rate". Look at Version profit margins which are public,

For example last quarter Version had $287million in revenue offset by $112 million in expenses. Think about those numbers, most of the revenue just flows straight through to profit. That is a monopoly, because the true cost of what Verisign (and Ausregistry) are providing is far below what we are paying, it is a product that all others are locked out of providing. They can get away with it because the contracts are not being put out to competition.

https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:VRSN&fstype=ii&ei=DE4tWOCpO5qO0QSC4pioBQ

What tlds are these? And the ones that do offer a special deal for the first year end up being way more when it comes to renewal.

Have a look (renewal rates). The cost of running a registry where no marketing is done (like .com and .com.au) isn't very much.

https://alpnames.com/domain-registration/domain-registration-price.php

.accountant AUD 1.05
.bid AUD 1.05
.cricket AUD 1.05
.date AUD 1.05
............

There is dozen's of them in that list.

 

[DomainNames]

Actually often you can register a new .com at the promotion price of 99 cents USD, You also have no auDA like red tape... no backward auDA policies restricting registrant eligibility and you can sell whenever you want....There are also no COR fees for .com ... Some registrars want you to add another year and pay but many do not require that.

 

[DomainNames]

I reckon if there were no pressure from foreign owners to grow profits there'd be no push for direct registrations from AUSregistry or should I say USAregistry?

Sooo true!! USAregistry hahaha. Wake up Australia.

 

[DomainNames]

Actually often you can register a new .com at the promotion price of 99 cents USD, You also have no auDA like red tape... no backward auDA policies restricting registrant eligibility and you can sell whenever you want....There are also no COR fees for .com ... Some registrars want you to add another year and pay but many do not require that.

the 99 cents .com promo also includes multiple year registration and FREE whois Privacy to stop spammers and scammers. I just counted at least 4 major registrars offering this.

What is the Australian equivalent? How about this price and the FREE whois Privacy also?

Where is the ausRegistry / Auda and supply innovation for what we have now with .com.au and .net.au to make it better, more globally competitive and more appealing? If they can't fix what we have now they can forget another extension push for more cash for themselves!

INCLUDED WITH ALL DOMAIN REGISTRATIONS

• 1 email account with 2 GB mailbox space & unlimited email forwarding
• NEW: SSL Certificate included
• Unlimited subdomains to structure your website
• Advanced DNS management
• Whois privacy is included to secure your personal information

• 24/7 customer support
• Secure your domain from hijacking risks with domain lock free
  
• Special offers
  
• Multiple year registration

 

[DomainNames]

These are Australia's options now after 16 years of auDA and Ausregistry (Neustar INC USA)

• Higher prices
• No free whois Privacy allowed like other extensions allow
  
• Paid for au lockdown not free like other extensions which offer this free. https://www.ausregistry.com.au/now-is-the-time-to-protect-your-domain-names/
• Paid for ssl certificates
• Pay for Change of Registrant. Any period paid for is flushed down the toilet
• Pay to become an auDA member.

etc!
These are the real hidden costs which make auDA/ Ausregistry not globally competitive and this hurts the Australian economy and domain name system. This makes us overall very expensive compared to the .com options avilable

 

[Lemon]

Looking at auDA's P&L they only make about 1.5 million a year so bringing down the price of domains by a dollar would probably send them out of business. However looking at their expenses they do seem to burn a lot of cash.