Dear ICANN, My understanding is that under the new scheme:
Verisign will be allowed to increase the wholesale price to registrars for .COM domains by 7% each year in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. After a two year “freeze”, Verisign can increase prices by 7% annually during 2026-2029, then another two year “freeze”. This cycle will continue, meaning that within 10 years, .COM domains could cost approximately 70% more than the current wholesale price of $7.85 — and the sky is the limit. Source: https://www.namecheap.com/blog/icann-allows-com-price-increases-gets-more-mo...
Speaking as an individual who privately owns a few .COM domains, out of the hundreds of millions of .COM domains currently registered, these proposed changes would make it much harder for private individuals to renew their own domains. The thing that makes this especially bad is that the price increases could force people out of domains that they have been using for decades. As a student myself I know that I could not afford to register and annually renew a .COM domain name under this new scheme, and I am worried that I might loose the domains that I already have registered. Please do not make this change. I ask that you maintain the pricing cap. Yours faithfully, S. Steenkamp PhD Student Department of Computer Science University of Cambridge