.au deregulation welcomed by channel

Newly appointed domain name registrars are expecting a landrush of businesses registering domain names following the long-anticipated deregulation of the .au domain name registry which came into effect yesterday.

As a result of the deregulation, businesses will now be able to register trademarks, product names, or any com.au domain name that the business warrants is substantially related to their business. Businesses will no longer be required to limit the number of .au domain names they register. They can get any abbreviation of their business name, any brand, product or industry name, but more broadly, any domain name that they warrant is a name related to their business activities.

As of yesterday consumers also have the opportunity of owning their own Australian Web site address. Consumers will be limited to registering an id.au domain name that is derived from their own name. Hence, John Smith could register johnsmith.id.au or jsmith.id.au.

The deregulation also brings to an end Melbourne IT's monopoly over the domain name market, as five additional registrars have been appointed by NOIE, including Primus Telecommunications, Name Scout, TPP Internet, Connect West and NetRegistry.

"Competition will be disastrous for MelbourneIT. From July 1, MelbourneIT will lose sales as domain name buyers and ISPs shop around for a better price and service. What's more, every domain name MelbourneIT register will require them to pay AusRegistry $50, a fee they didn't incur before" NetRegistry CEO Larry Bloch said.

"MelbourneIT has some work to do if it is to maintain profitability under competition from companies like NetRegistry, who can value-add free email and hosting services into every domain name registered".

With the introduction of new registrars, the cost of registering a domain name has already dropped considerably.

"Before deregulation, the cost of registering a domain name was around $144, now we are selling domain names to businesses for $88," Bloch said. To celebrate its foray into the domain name registry, NetRegistry, businesses can purchase a domain name for $88 and receive two free e-mail addresses, one free au.com domain name, a one-month free trial of its e-mail or hosting packages and free zone management to allow technical editing of DNS files

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