Starting on Saturday July 31, the U.S.
General Services Administration's (GSA)
".GOV" Internet Domain Registry will ask government entities to pay $125 a year to cover registration and renewal costs.
GSA used stringent authentication standards to register .GOV domain names for 100 federal agencies in 1997, when it launched the registry. Since then, the program has expanded exponentially.
"Just over a year ago we gave access to state and local governments to the .GOV registry, along with federally recognized Indian tribes," said Mary J. Mitchell, GSA deputy associate administrator for electronic government and technology. "This community now makes up almost 60 percent of the active 3,400 public entities who rely on the .GOV domain registry."
Typically, commercial registries charge less than the government fee, because they don't have to adhere to the costly, stringent, federal authentication standards, and they can sell advertising space and other commercial Web-hosting services to defray costs. In contrast, the federal government is prohibited from engaging in commercial activities to defray costs.
