Apr 30

I'm not alone in finding Verisign's successive domain name pricing increases dubious at best. Personally, I fail to understand how scale and reach fails to decrease costs for Verisign, when almost all other technologies cost less overtime.

 

Generally, in manufacturing and with technology, scale and longevity lead to decreasing costs. For instance, back in the day, internet access was expensive and the speeds slow - but overtime, costs declined and speeds increased. The same is true for the iPhone. At it's launch it was pricey, then overtime, it became better and cheaper (even with AT&T subsidizing it).

 

Years ago it was typical for domain names to cost over $30 per year - but through competition, through scale, automation, and decreased operating costs - their pricing fell. Well except for Verisign on the wholesale side. Nope, apparently, even though they've managed the top level domains (TLDs) .com and .net (a monopoly handed them by ICANN) for years, they've somehow be unsuccessful in streamlining operations.

 

Verisign's arguments that increased domain queries is driving up costs seems specious. Around the world, costs for domains (wholesale) were trending downward, but in the U.S. because Verisign is increasing the wholesale cost of the .com TLD by 7% and .net by 10% - come July 1, 2010 purchasing the two most popular TLDs will become more expensive.