Come July 1st, and after an increase in domain name prices in 2008, Verisign will again exercise its contractual right to raise domain name prices. The base registration price for .com domain names will be hiked by at least 7% and that of .net will be hiked by 10% for all registrars. This price hike is being made under VeriSign’s contract (which runs through 2012) with ICANN. No doubt that like always, registrars will pass the price increase on to customers.
It helps to note that the ICANN has given VeriSign a monopoly over the .com and .net TLDs, allowing the company to hike prices up each year. Assuming that VeriSign continues the 7 percent rise each year (which seems reasonable as per the company’s history), registrars will be looking at $9.00 for .com domains by the time the current contract ends in 2012—a 50 percent increase in six years.
If you plan to register / renew a domain name, do it now before price increase. You will save some money or regret later.