[ncdnhc-discuss] Re: Mission creep and consumer protection

[Marc Schneiders]

On Thu, 14 Feb 2002, at 17:16 [=GMT-0500], Milton Mueller wrote:

> One of the things that is truly bizarre about this whole conversation
> is that in the broad scheme of Internet use - which requires
> a computer, Internet access, site hosting, etc. - registry prices are an
> utterly trivial part of the picture. $6/year is 50 cents a month. Cut that in
> half and you've saved a quarter a month. Big deal.
>
> For poor people or undeveloped countries, the real obstacle
> to Internet access is bandwidth (connectivity), not domain names.
> Not to mention the $1000 or so ($100/month) for the computer
> itself, and the labor required to post and host content.  Bandwidth is
> horrendously expensive in many developing and undeveloped countries,
> and many people don't have telephone lines at all.
>
> As consumer protection issues go, registry prices are pretty far
> down the list at this point.

So very true. However, ICANN is not involved in the costs of all those
items you mention, only in the price of domains. So I cannot see, why it
is not to the point to raise the issue within our constituency. It may not
be a very great help in bridging the digital divide. Still, within the
limited scope of our undertakings within the DNSO it seems important
enough not to be dismissed. (Certainly not, as it is possible to host
hundreds, even thousands of domains on one server. 1000 * $6 is a lot more
than the $1000 you quote for the hardware...)