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auDA today announced that it has extended its au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry. AusRegistry will now continue as Registry Operator and wholesale provider for all commercial domain names including .com.au and .net.au and non-commercial domain names, .gov.au and .edu.au until 2014.

The extension of the term is the direct result of the independent Industry Competition Panel that was established by .au Domain Administration (auDA) in May 2008. The panel was appointed by auDA to review auDA's competition model for the Australian Domain Name Industry and provide recommendations to the auDA board on what changes (if any) should be made to the competition model.

Among the many recommendations of the Panel was the following:

"Recommendation 2: The Panel recommends that auDA negotiates with the current registry operator with a view to extending the current registry licence term by up to 4 years. Such an extension should be subject to agreement being reached on (a) a suitable pricing model and (b) the inclusion of all items that auDA would require in a new license."

Chris Disspain, CEO of auDA said, "Based on the recommendations of the independent panel we entered into discussions with AusRegistry to renegotiate the Licence Agreement. I am delighted we have been able to reach agreement. auDA believes that AusRegistry continues to excel in its role as Registry Operator and provides unprecedented support and competitive pricing for the .au namespace."

The major points of the renegotiated Licence Agreement include:

• extended Customer Support Hours for Registrars
• funding towards Marketing and Market Research
• a $0.25 donation to the auDA Foundation for every .com.au and .net.au domain renewal and new registration
• the implementation of DNSSEC
• commitment to yearly independent Security Audits
• continued improvement and enhancement of the Registry Software
• new pricing that sees a drop in AusRegistry's wholesale price to $14 (for a 2 year licence) for .com.au and .net.au domains and further drops as volumes increase

AusRegistry CEO, Adrian Kinderis, said, "We are obviously extremely happy to have reached agreement to extend the licence. We are very proud of the role we have preformed as Registry Operator since 2002 and look forward to continuing to show the world .au is at the forefront of Domain Name Registry technology."

About ARI Registry Services

ARI Registry Services (formerly AusRegistry International) is one of the top companies globally with the technology and expertise to activate, implement and manage new Top-Level Domains. Leveraging ten years of experience as a TLD registry operator, ARI Registry Services will provide new Top-Level Domain applicants with the same software and consulting services that currently drive the .au (Australia), the .ae (United Arab Emirates), the .qa (Qatar) and .om (Oman) country codes. (Learn More)

Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Registry Services, Top-Level Domains