DE-NIC financing

Several models of financing DE-NIC services were discussed.

Voluntary contributions by the end users.

This resembles more or less the shareware concept. If the user is satisfied with the service, he is asked to pay for it. Even if this model will fit quite well into the Internet way of setting up things (based on cooperation), it was felt that a stable financing could not be achieved by this approach.

Billing the end users.

By this model, the end users will receive DE-NIC services only, if they pay for it. This model would distribute the costs of running the DE-NIC in a fair way. It is quite heavy in handling, as a lot of bills for a small amount of money are generated and have to be tracked. It could not be implemented in general, as some of the service providers wanted one-stop shopping for its customers. In 1992, another point against this model came up: It was quite unusual to pay for certain services, as domain registrations and network number assignment and it was felt, that this model would not be accepted by the Internet community at large.

Funding by the government.

DE-NIC services are partly monopolistic in nature. As telecommunication services in 1992 just started to be deregulated, it was quite natural to involve the government in this monopolistic, governmental activity. This model was not accepted by some of the service providers, because they felt uneasy about asking for regulation, as the common feeling was to deregulate the telecommunications business, rather than strengthen the regulation.

Funding by the service providers.

This solution had a flaw with those end users, who asked for network number registrations, but were not customers of a service provider. This was resolved, as those end users are considered a prospective customer base of the service providers. The cost of serving those users can be seen as marketing and presales costs. The service providers didn't want the DE-NIC to provide consultancy on a general basis, as they didn't want to finance activities, which they could sell to the user community as well. The most crucial point was, that this model depends mainly on having all major service providers involved, or funding will become unfair.

Despite the fact that none of the models had it good points only, the last solution was considered the best available.