NTIA, Verisign Extend Cooperative Agreement, End .com Domain Price Cap
NTIA and Verisign agreed Thursday to extend through 2024 the cooperative agreement allowing Verisign to administer the root zone file and run the .com and .net domain registries, repealing the $7.85 .com domain price increase cap NTIA included when it…
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last extended the agreement. The 2012 cap was set to expire this month. Repeal lets Verisign pursue a change in its registry agreement with ICANN that could result in up to a 7 percent annual increase in .com domain name prices beginning in 2020, an amendment said. The move “provides Verisign the pricing flexibility” to potentially “increase wholesale .com prices,” in line with the Trump administration's “policy priorities,” NTIA said. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other GOP lawmakers who were critical of the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition raised concerns that year about the proposed extension of Verisign’s contract with ICANN over domain pricing (see 1608150052). The new pact adds language committing Verisign to “operate the .com registry in a content neutral manner and that Verisign will participate in ICANN processes that promote the development of content neutral policies” for Domain Name System operation. NTIA clarified the company is barred from operating as a .com top-level domain registrar, not from being a registrar for other TLDs.