🚀 go-pugleaf

General aspects:
***************
The year 1996 brought a tremendous and completely unexpected demand for
Internet second level domain names under top level domain names CH and
LI. A growth rate of 700 percent had to be met this year: from 1834 in
January 1996 to 12575 registered domain names at the time of this
writing (December 6, 1996). Several factors had been contributing to
such a soaring number of applications:

1. The growth of the Internet, which had been practically exploding this
year in Switzerland in every respect.
 
2. A liberal policy, allowing virtually any entity to register names.
 
3. Several methods for submission of application forms. The form is
available on-line on the World Wide Web and as ASCII form (in print and
as file).
 
4. Short processing times for each application, averaging at two to
three  working days per application.
 
5. Low charges compared with other registries in Europe.

The registry had to be built up from scratch during this year. Tools
enabling fast and accurate registration had to be developed, the 
basic documents had to be written and updated, automated accounting 
had to be introduced to save time and to be freed from teething
problems, persons had to be hired and instructed to perform the
demanding registration job.

For each successful registration a transaction overhead of at least 
factor five has been encountered. This overhead includes modifications, 
deletions, correspondence by fax, e-mail or telephone and transactions 
regarding billing for names.


Billing in 1997:
***************
The number of registered domain names in 1996 has by far exceeded 
the predictions made in 1995. Based on this experience again a 
substantial growth is anticipated for 1997. Two measures will be 
taken in 1997 to obtain a balanced budget:

1) New fees. Charges for registration will be halved; i.e. 
 * initial registration fee will be CHF 80.00 and
 * maintenance fee will be CHF 48.00 (first year pro rata temporis).
 
2) Registrants having paid for names before 1997 will benefit from a   
compensation offered to them: their maintenance fee for 1997 will be   
waived, i.e. such registrants will not be charged with maintenance
   fees in 1997. The registry is issuing mail, announcing the new
   charges as in 1) above and make clear that no invoicing takes place
   and WHOIS database entries will be included. Previous registrants
   will be asked to check and update the information when necessary.


Marcel Schneider@SWITCH