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Nominet Raising Reg fees by 50%!!

Discussion in 'Nominet General Information' started by trendmedia, Nov 25, 2015.

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  1. trendmedia

    trendmedia Active Member

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    As a registrar I just received this disheartening news...

    I'm no expert but as a bystander for years I've seen Nominet gift its surplus profit to charity/it's own Foundation.

    As a non-for-profit that makes huge surplus profit - is Nominet justified in raising prices by 50%? I don't think it's own justifications are actually justified - but I may be wrong?

    Full Text:
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    Change to wholesale pricing for .UK domains

    As you may have seen from recent Board reports, we have reviewed wholesale pricing for .UK domains over recent months. In doing so, we’ve taken the following into account: rising costs to run a world-class namespace; continued investments in services that benefit both registrants and registrars; and an increasingly competitive domain environment.

    Having concluded that process, we have decided that the wholesale price for .UK domains (e.g. .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk) will change to £3.75 per year from 1 March 2016.

    That means wholesale prices for all registrations will be harmonised, replacing the current two-tier pricing of £3.50 for a one year registration, and £2.50 per year for multiple-year registrations.

    Our new pricing strategy aims to accomplish three things. Firstly, as with any business the price we charge is linked to our ability to deliver a fantastic service. Secondly, we want to invest in the .UK namespace to ensure we can differentiate over the long-term. Thirdly, we want to be able to invest in marketing and promotions in order to secure prominence at point of sale - which our current pricing levels cannot support. At the new price of £3.75 per year, .UK is well positioned against all of the competing TLDs.

    Since the last time we changed the wholesale price of .UK domains in 1999, we’ve made substantial investments in our (i) technical infrastructure to guarantee the resilience of the namespace, (ii) award-winning customer service, (iii) dispute resolution services and (iv) tools to improve consumer protection against cyber-crime. Despite vigilant financial management, our costs have increased over the last 16 years, while operating profits have decreased as the growth rate in the domain market slows.

    In the face of increasing choice and competition in the domain market, Nominet needs to continue to invest in our core asset – the .UK domain portfolio – so that we can differentiate based on value for money, trust and resonance.

    We also need to continue to work in partnership with you, as our channel, to promote the value of domains to registrants, by driving awareness and encouraging adoption. We plan to collaborate closely with you on marketing, promotional and data-driven initiatives to achieve those objectives.

    As part of our commercial strategy, wholesale pricing will be reviewed, albeit not necessarily increased, annually.

    We want to give you some time to plan, so we have delayed the introduction of this price increase until 1 March 2016. I am sure that some of you will be, or will have, customers who may wish to lock-in the current pricing by registering or renewing for up to 10 years before then.

    Nominet is a public benefit company. Accordingly, we’ll ultimately measure success in terms of a thriving .UK namespace that delivers a world-class service and supports a wider, stronger contribution to the digital economy that benefits us all. Looking ahead, we will be doing more than ever before to ensure .UK continues to earn its reputation as a trusted namespace.

    Finally, we are taking the opportunity to update our T&Cs for .UK domain name registrants. The proposed document is now available for comment and can be found here. We hope that alongside being much shorter, the proposed T&Cs are clearer for registrants. Your feedback on how we can improve these further is welcome.

    Any questions about these changes, please drop me a line, contact the channel team or call customer services.

    I look forward to our continued partnership.

    Russell Haworth - CEO
    Nominet
    ------------------------------------------------

    Link to email in browser:
    http://info.nominet.org.uk/HM?b=fY-...WkhrLBgvsx3onM5R4UDT&c=AdZwJ3CBaZUxTqVvlfJjDA
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    I love how the CEO says "drop me a line" but doesn't provide his email address!
     
  4. trendmedia

    trendmedia Active Member

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    Good spot Edwin - that's technically called a P155 take
     
  5. martin-s United Kingdom

    martin-s Well-Known Member

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  6. Paullas

    Paullas Super Moderator Staff Member

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    I see theregister.com has picked it up now. [emoji3]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  7. trendmedia

    trendmedia Active Member

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  8. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Yes. I wonder where they got those salary figures from :)
     
  9. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

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    I think a petition at parliament would be of more impact, make some MPs see the millions and have them eyeballing nominet. I hate to say it I would rather pay "the man" than let those feckers at nominet keep paying themselves insane wages.
     
  10. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately petitions need something like 100,000 signatures for them to automatically get any sort of consideration, and there's no chance of persuading that many people about the issue. Just too complicated and too "meh" for the average person in the street (who will only see the per-domain price rise if they think about anything at all)

    What really needs to happen (I don't know how to get it to happen) is for Nominet to get sanctioned under the Digital Economy Act and either A) their wings get clipped for them or B) the UK namespace gets handed over to a different entity with much greater restrictions on what it's allowed to do or not do
    http://domainincite.com/615-uk-domains-get-government-oversight
     
  11. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

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    Needs 10,000 to get a response from the government but 100k to get a shot at a parliamentary debate, however some petitions with as little as 1,000 signatures have attracted government attention. Apparently ALL petitions are viewed by a variety of MPs and many politicians actively check. This what they claim anyway.

    Only needs 1 or 2 MPs to take up the issue ;)
     
  12. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Here's a really simple graphic to visualise the difference and the impact of the removal of the 2-year pricing tier.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Here's an even clearer graphic, illustrating the effective 300% price rise by June 2019 for a company operating on a 2-year registration/renewal cycle.

    [​IMG]

    You can download the same information as a PDF here...
    http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/fullpricerise.pdf

    (Please let me know if you spot any errors, and I'll correct them ASAP)
     
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