Nominet Overhauls Its Procedures
Nominet, a popular registrar of .co.uk domain names, recently outlined a comprehensive set of changes to its services, which it will implement beginning in May of 2012. The biggest change is that a single-year registration of a .uk domain name will cost £3.50 per year, where a two-year registration will be £2.50 per year. Both prices will have the standard VAT added atop those prices. The two-year price is the same as before, but the availability of one-year domain purchase is a new element to Nominet’s services.
Domains will also be available for renewal for up to 10 years, and renewal will be possible at any time, as long as the renewal years do not add up to over 10 years. Prior to these changes, registrants could only acquire Nominet domains in two-year blocks. There are other new aspects to Nominet’s operating procedures, too, many of which seem to streamline customer services, billing, and renewal processes. One of these changes includes an inability to cancel a purchase once the registration invoice has been issued to the customer.
Apparently, there had been concern that the availability of single-year domain registration would increase the number of non-serious domain customers – people who want abusive or throwaway domains in the .uk registry. Hopefully, a slightly higher cost for a one-year period of registration will set this problem back slightly.
