The National Science Foundation and Network Solutions Inc., the government-appointed registrar of .com domain names, announced today that they will stop collecting a 30 percent surcharge on registrations instituted in 1995 to fund enhancement of the Internet.
The intellectual infrastructure fund, mandated by the foundation in its exclusive contract with Network Solutions, has collected roughly US$55 million since its inception two-and-a-half years ago.
Last fall, Congress ordered the fund to disburse $23 million to assist development of the Clinton administration's Next Generation Internet initiative.
That leaves about $32 million sitting in an interest-bearing checking account. A federal judge in Virginia, acting on a challenge to the fee scheme's validity, imposed a preliminary injunction last month that has frozen the fund.
But even without the court action, the foundation has never quite figured out how to spend the money - let alone award dollars to those wanting to boost the Net's intellectual infrastructure.
In its announcement today, Network Solutions said it would drop the 30 percent charge effective 1 April - the date suggested for just such a move in the Clinton administration's recent domain-name proposal. The cost for registering a new name in the .com, .org, and .net domains will thus drop from $100 to $70; the cost for annual renewals will fall to $35 from $50.
