[AfrICANN-discuss] AfriDNS - Internet governance at the local level

[Mark Elkins]

On 16/11/2017 11:51, Alan Levin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been studying African cctld for many years.

I've been working  in the industry for 20+ years (I started
running/managing/automating CO.ZA in September 1995)

> The cost of registering an African cctld in Uganda / Nigeria / Ghana /
> Botswana / Angola, etc appears to remain totally out of kilter with
> the global market rates.  To buy a .ke for a local is around USD6, but
> for a foreigner it's >USD17 and they appear to be one of the cheapest. 

I agree. I view a Domain as one of the earlier steps to obtaining
on-line presence. Domain names should be viewed as enablers..

> In South Africa a domain goes for less than USD5, and they are
> available globally at the same price. We have over 1.2m
> registrations... significantly more than any other African cctld... 

:-)

I charge R80.00 for a CO.ZA domain. Exchange Rates as of 16th Nov 12:00
GMT -  $1 = R14.31

R80 = approx $5.60 - that's with my Markup and VAT - so that's to the
man in the street.

> How can I encourage our clients to buy African cctlds when there is so
> much more to chose from nowadays?

William Stucke lead a team, of which I was a significant member, paid
for by ICANN to run an African DNS survey. The 3 month Survey took over
a year. We did present some (what I believe to be) reasonable
conclusions and summary - which you can find a link to at
https://dnsafrica.study

Pricing (& ease of paying) and availability (& ease of access or
automation) were amongst the considerations.

But, I agree with you, or forget about any individual African Name - and
just buy your dotAfrica from me at https://vweb.co.za   ;-)

Seriously though - you are correct.

Prices should generally be lower.

-- 
Mark James ELKINS  -  Posix Systems - (South) Africa
mje at posix.co.za       Tel: +27.128070590  Cell: +27.826010496
For fast, reliable, low cost Internet in ZA: https://ftth.posix.co.za

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