In summary you should be driving the cost and inconvenience of domain registration down, not providing scope for it to increase. It was doubtless argued that "novel" tLD registry's should have uncapped pricing to ensure they could break even. Now, the argument is if they can have it why can't the TLDs with captive markets. Well the answer is that the public good of inexpensive, competently administered domains is what the public want / need. Not profiteering. Be reasonable, tender for lowest price against an SLA, and if competition is not practical require (say) 10% efficiency reductions in charges per anum Martin Bishop PS The maximum registration period for all tLDs should be extended to 10 years, the annual churn on e.f. .UK is a considerable irritition.