Re: domain name renewal

Herndon, VA, January 16th, 2002 -- VeriSign (VeriSign, NASDAQ: VRSN) is once
again trying to exploit its monopoly status and drive its competitors out of
business. The Internet infrastructure gorilla, worth over $8.3 billion in
today's market, announced its latest anti-competitive tactic called the
Waiting List Service to control the secondary market for domains and force
massive new costs on its small competitors.

For most of the Internet's history the government granted the former Network
Solutions Inc. monopoly status in domain registrations. This policy was
widely regarded as a failure since NSI did not meet basic service levels and
simultaneously forced every domain consumer to pay onerous fees (usually
$70-$119 per registration wherein the new competitive market offers the same
for about $16 and provides enhanced service levels). Hence, the government
tried to break the monopoly by separating the now Verisign Global Registry
with its retail Registrar service. Unfortunately this new policy leaves a
monopoly on the registry side wherein every new competitor still has to pay
VeriSign $6 for every registration to manage the central database. These $6
fees from competitors rake in a approximately $180 million per year for
VeriSign.

For the rest of the story:
http://buydomains.com/olinks/pr011802?framed

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