Internet Users To Foot Cost Of Running System Businesses, Private Groups Will Be Charged $50 A Year
Since its inception, the Internet has been known as a wild frontier where computer cowboys roamed unfettered and free of charge. But now harsh realities are intruding, leading the federal government to shift much of the cost of administering the huge computer network from taxpayers to the Internet community itself.
Starting next week, businesses and private organizations that maintain addresses on the Internet will have to pay $50 a year, the National Science Foundation said this week. The foundation had been funding the administrative costs of registering the addresses - estimated to reach $6 million this year - but now says it can’t keep up.
The payment, to be collected by Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions Inc., would come from most organizations that have set up the Internet’s 110,000 “domains,” the equivalent of electronic post offices where large numbers of individuals can receive messages. They include companies such as McDonald’s Corp. and The Washington Post Co., as well as Internet service companies.
Individual Internet users would not be charged the fee, but some organizations, such as Internet access companies, that charge people to use their domains might pass on the fees to the users in the form of higher rates.
Network Solutions, which has assigned domain names under a contract with the National Science Foundation for the past two years, would use the money to cover its costs and fund capital improvements in the Internet. The government would continue to subsidize addresses’ costs for education institutions and federal agencies.
The news received mixed reaction from the high-tech community.
Many people said it was time that taxpayers stop subsidizing an exploding industry, while others bemoaned the move as a horrible milestone in the Internet’s commercialization. For decades the network of networks has been beloved by freewheeling computer techies and academics as a pristine place unregulated by government and untouched by commercial interests.
But it was never so.
The Internet’s roots go back to the 1960s, when the Pentagon planned a network of farflung sites that would allow communications to continue in the event of a nuclear war. But the military and other federal agencies shunned control of the system. Over time some minimal responsibilities fell by default to the National Science Foundation, which coordinated similar computer networks connecting universities.
As the popularity of the Internet grew, the tiny science foundation was increasingly burdened with the costs of registering names. Last year it paid $1.6 million and this year it is estimated that the cost will be $6 million.
The rise was caused by the huge surge in Internet traffic. In 1993 there were 7,500 addresses, and now there are 110,000, 90 percent of them registered by companies. It’s expected to grow exponentially, with 20,000 new addresses being assigned each month.
“All of a sudden we were baby-sitting Baby Huey,” said Beth Gaston, a foundation spokeswoman. “It grew beyond our interest and our capabilities. It’s not appropriate for taxpayer money to pay for (General Electric Co.) to get on the Internet.”
The new job will mean plenty of work for Network Solutions, a 15-year-old telecommunications company with 300 employees and $35 million in revenue.
The firm - which last March was bought by California-based Science Applications International Corp. - will keep 70 percent of the fees for its costs and a profit. The rest will go to upgrade Internet infrastructure, including eight computer centers that route data.
“A lot of people will probably be offended, but these things have a cost and it is appropriate to tie those costs to the user,” said Esther Dyson, publisher of Release 1.0, a computer industry trade newsletter. “If I were a guy who did not use a computer, I certainly would not want to foot the bill for someone who does.”