On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, MacroTec Computer Systems wrote:

> >I am going to have a hard time telling customers that they now have to pay
> >and extra $125. When we were selling our services... as im sure many other
> >isps were.. and the client asks 'Do I have to pay any more' and we honestly
> >answered 'Nope.. thats it'.... we are going to be accused of lying for a start,
> >Melbourne IT is going to generate a LOT of animosity against themselves
> >from clients, and many people will elect I think to DUMP .com.au and go to
> >the USA and register a .com or .net domain.

> Correct, many ISP's have up to 50 or more domains registered for there
> customers, and well I don't feel like ringing them all up and telling them
> that all of a sudden that they have a extra $125 P.A. to pay, and well
> basically we can not afford to just wear the cost of over $6500 per year to
> maintain our customers domain names.  
> 
> .com and .net domains are looking very promising.

Melbourne IT has got to realize that they are competing in an
international marketplace against foreign suppliers of the same service.
They either have to maintain rough pricing parity with foreign suppliers
like the Internic or they have got to supply a superior level of service.
However, if they supply only one grade of service at the higher price
point then they *WILL* lose customers to the foreign supplier.

Not everyone needs or wants the same level of service. A company that
specializes in one product or service must supply several different grades
of quality at several different price points. And a company that wishes to
sell a high priced service absolutley *MUST* ensure that they really can
deliver the superior level of service to account for the price
differential.

It is very likely that by February of 1997 (3 month or so from now) there
will be more than one foreign supplier of domain names so that Melbourne
IT will not be competing against just the Internic but against several
companies and there is every possibility that one or more of those
competitors will be a domestic Australian company.

IMHO, Melbourne IT does have a unique product in the .com.au domain that
they can indeed sell for a small premium over general market prices but
the announced fee structure is much more than a small premium and if
Melbourne IT persists with the proposed fee structure they will in fact
damage the reputation of the product (.com.au) such that it will not have
any value at all in the future. Should this happen Melbourne It will be
the authour of their own demise.

For the record, I'm from the Great White North also known as Canada.

Michael Dillon                   -               ISP & Internet Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael§memra.com