Nominet confirm price rise

[wonder_lander]

Emiail received from Nominet

Change to .UK domain wholesale prices

Following the annual review of pricing by the Board last week, the wholesale cost for a .UK domain registration or renewal will change to £3.90 per year from 13 January 2020.

The 15p per domain increase reflects some of the increased costs of running the registry business since prices last changed in 2016.

We have absorbed the majority of the increased costs, but decided after careful consideration that a 4% increase in the wholesale price was appropriate.

As a world-class registry, we are committed to meeting our obligations as part of critical national infrastructure, developing the resilience and reliability of our systems, delivering world-class customer service, and increasing the promotion and visibility of .UK domains. We believe these investments are important and benefit all stakeholders.

We appreciate that price rises are never popular, but even after this modest rise, .UK domains remain extremely competitively priced in the market and accessible to all.

We will be reviewing credit limits to ensure registrars are able to operate as usual in January.

Prices will take effect from 00:00 UTC on 13 January 2020.

 

[Admin]

Ridiculous. I had an interesting exchange with them about this and their governance last week. Do you know what they said...i'm paraphrasing, but, they report to nobody and are not accountable or governed by any organisation directly. It shows...the greedy f**&ers.

 

[RobM]

This is the trouble when they keep raising their bonuses quicker than people actually buy the domains. Too many snouts in the trough. They don't even try to hide their corruption anymore - they are 'untouchable'. You can see their disdain by the fact they didn't throw a stupid NED in here to tell us rubbish.

 

[domain-names]

Greed.

 

[wonder_lander]

Ridiculous. I had an interesting exchange with them about this and their governance last week. Do you know what they said...i'm paraphrasing, but, they report to nobody and are not accountable or governed by any organisation directly. It shows...the greedy f**&ers.

I'd be interested to hear what these increased costs are of running the registry! As you say, totally ridiculous

 

[RobM]

Whores will have their trinkets. Nominet - offering 1990s service at 2020s prices.

 

[lazarus]

That will fund some more international ventures then. Like fibre broadband in Timbuktoo.

 

[Siusaidh]

On a year by year basis that's just below the rate of inflation ... I was fearing worse to be honest. 1.3% a year. It still adds up in bulk, and leaves questions about whether registrants are subsidizing expansion in other fields. 15p a year means a hit of £150 extra for 1000 domains. Well, a bit of extra VAT as well.

 

[Nigel]

wonder how much of this goes to fund ngtld operations like .vodka and .horse ??

 

[RobM]

Now we'll see if the top registrars only increase their prices by 15p.

 

[martin-s]

Now we'll see if the top registrars only increase their prices by 15p.

Like the last time you mean?

 

[TRUK]

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[Nigel]

that 15p can pay the bonuses

 

[wonder_lander]

Now we'll see if the top registrars only increase their prices by 15p.

I think for accounting reasons it's easier for them to round it up to the next nearest £5

 

[Whois-Search]

A great writeup from Kieren McCarthy:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/02/nominet_uk_registry/

He’s managed to include everything in there...

 

[Siusaidh]

Thanks for the link to that article. Then by a couple of link leaps I came across reference to a £2 offer for .uks which I didn't know about. Is that offer still in operation? I'm assuming this is an old offer that's not available any longer. ???

 

[Whois-Search]

Thanks for the link to that article. Then by a couple of link leaps I came across reference to a £2 offer for .uks which I didn't know about. Is that offer still in operation? I'm assuming this is an old offer that's not available any longer. ???

If you are a Member click on Promotions in the control panel and sign up

IMO one of the reasons for a price rise is to pay for these promotions and co-marketing of larger registrars.

I have also made a little site: www.15p.co.uk

 

[RobM]

Interesting link to lodge a complaint, not necessarily about the payrise but how nominet and Haworth are changing the company and not running the model as it was intended.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tell-the-cma-about-a-competition-or-market-problem

 

[Nigel]

interested to hear of £2 .uk renewal promotions. Is that because registrars like 123reg have a ton of .uk renewals due and enables them to make even more profit on each one renewed?

 

[Whois-Search]

interested to hear of £2 .uk renewal promotions. Is that because registrars like 123reg have a ton of .uk renewals due and enables them to make even more profit on each one renewed?

I did think that myself however:

1. It is hard to implement a renewal promotion on a public facing registrar and you have to pass the promotion on. How do you stop a customer renewing the same name more than one year? It is far more likely large registrars will run a new registration promotion: https://www.crazydomains.co.uk

2. In the case of 123-reg their renewal reminders went out in September. However two years ago in October / November 2017 many registrars got 2 years free on .uk (we have 10,000 expiring on 30th October). So really you could say that promotion is for .uk portfolio owners.