Domain Name Registration Costs Slashed

New software/service combo from TUCOWS will make name registration so easy and inexpensive, every subscriber will want to do it.

by Ted Stevenson ISP-Planet Managing Editor [October 27, 1999]

If you've thought about offering domain name registration for your customers, but haven't done it because the cost was too high and the profit margin too low, TUCOWS.com has just turned this picture upside down. The software distribution company yesterday announced OpenSRS (Shared Registration System), a combined software and service offering that will allow ISPs, web hosting firms, and VARs to register names in the .com, .net and .org domains at a cost of $13 per registration per year—less than half the fee charged by Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and its new competitors. TUCOWS affiliates will be eligible for even steeper discounts.

"Offering ISPs a means to provide an inexpensive domain name registration service to their end users is something no other registrar has been willing to do," said Ross W. Rader, Director of eCommerce for TUCOWS.com. "Not only have we addressed this need, but we have given OpenSRS participants the opportunity to leverage standards-based, open source tools to gain access to pricing previously reserved for a select few, high-volume registration firms."

The OpenSRS client software has been released under the popular GNU Public License. This open-source license lets companies customize and modify the code to ensure that it works in their environment, an option typically not available with proprietary software.

OpenSRS comprises two major components: an open-source front end and a server back end. The net result of the process of transactions between OpenSRS and NSI is that customers can now register domain names with their local ISP or web hosting provider in real time—at a fraction of the former cost.

Paul Engels, VP of Marketing for I.D. Internet Direct Ltd., said, "As Canada's largest independent ISP, we register thousands of domain names. Open SRS.com allows us to offer a quality service at a much more competitive price. Being able to save our customers more than 50 percent on their annual registration costs is a win-win solution for everyone."

To cover customer support, TUCOWS has established a 24-hour customer service center for OpenSRS.com that can be contacted via e-mail, pager, and an emergency toll-free phone number.

For further information, visit the OpenSRS Web site.

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