Costs risen considerably, says CEO. Members not persuaded
\nUK registry operator Nominet is planning to increase the cost of .uk domains by 50 per cent starting 1 March 2016, raising questions over its historic nonprofit status.\n\nThe surprise announcement will see the wholesale price for all web addresses ending in “UK” increase to £3.75 from £2.50 per year, and are needed to deal with costs that “have risen considerably since we last changed the price,” according to CEO Russell Haworth.\n\nIn addition, the company has proposed a number of changes to its terms and conditions that would give Nominet’s management the ability to make further price increases without having to go through a public consultation and without having to justify any increase in terms of cost-recovery.\n\nIn other words, the historically non-profit member organization that was set up to act as a steward of the UK’s internet namespace is positioning itself to become a for-profit that is free to raise funds for greater expansion by charging UK citizens more for their domain names.\n\nUnsurprisingly, many of Nominet’s members – most of whom are small companies that sell domains to end customers – are unhappy with the proposed changes and have already set up an online petition to oppose them at egm.uk.\n\nA number have already pointedly highlighted the fact that much of the cost increase has come in the form of salaries paid to Nominet’s staff and directors, and that the organization costs significantly more to run than equivalent registries.
