.au domain registration fees drop

According to the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, the increasing demand for Web addresses is pushing down the price of registering .au domain names.

Over the last year, the total number of .au domains grew to more than 433,000 with more than 110,000 new .com.au names registered.

This growth has enabled .au Domain Administration (auDA) to reduce its fee from AU$10 to AU$7.50 starting August 1.

AusRegistry, which operates the registry system in Australia and manages second level domains such as .com.au, .net.au, and .org.au, also reduced the wholesale price for domains late last year.

The total fee for .au domain name is made up of fees from auDA, AusRegistry and registrars who sell domain names to the public.

The retail price for .com.au names currently varies between AU$60 and AU$140 for up to three years, depending on the registrar and the services they offer.