May 28, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- According to a report by research and analysis firm Netcraft (netcraft.com), The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN.org) has proposed raising the fees it charges domain registrars.
In its 2004-2005 budget, ICANN includes a new fee that will average $19,200 per registrar and a 25 cent fee for each domain sold. ICANN wants to raise fees in order to increase its budgeted revenue from $8.7 to over $16 million, the report said.
The proposed fee hikes have caused widespread protests from large and small domain sellers alike. Bhavin Turakhia of domain registrar Directi (directi.com) said in the report that the pricing model favors larger registrars, potentially putting smaller registrars out of business. However, the fees would still put a dent in the wallets of larger registrars. According to the report, annual fee increases for Network Solutions (networksolutions.com) would be $536,000, $273,000 for Tucows (tucows.com) and $253,000 for GoDaddy (godaddy.com).
India-based Directi, representing 26 smaller registrars, has launched a Web site to protest the proposed fee changes.
