To renew Verisign deal, but questions pricing — US Gov

Government opens door to re-evaluating prices.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today sent a letter to Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) affirming that it will renew the agreement for running the .com registry.

Still, the organization stated it was opening a discussion regarding pricing in response to requests from lawmakers and outside groups.

The letter makes clear that Verisign has by now been making its case to the NTIA regarding pricing. Its argument it twofold:

First, many registrars have been raising their prices at higher rates than Verisign.

Second, people sell domains on the secondary market for many times the wholesale cost of a .com domain.

Since registrars and domain investors are the two primary contingencies that push back against price increases, it makes sense for Verisign to attack both groups.

Get ready for a lot of politicking.