UniForum SA, trading as the ZA Central Registry (ZACR), has proposed a shake-up to the popular .co.za domain space, including a 50% increase in annual fees payable by domain registrants.

It’s also proposed that those who don’t pay their annual renewal fees within 60 days of them being due automatically lose their domains.

The registry explains that over the past two years, it has taken steps to align its domain name registry operating system to international standards by implementing a registration system that is based on the Extensible Provision Protocol, or EPP.

For now, the EPP system operates in tandem with ZACR’s legacy domain name system.

ZACR says it has published a number of proposed policy changes that are applicable to both the EPP and legacy systems.

The proposed policy changes on the EPP system involve increasing the new registrar accreditation fee that is payable as a once-off non-refundable amount; implementation of a closed registrar redemption process; implementation of an open redemption process which will place a non-redeemed domain name into the available pool for registration by any EPP registrar; and removal of the transfer reimbursement fee currently applicable to participating registrars in a registrar transfer process.

Proposed policy changes on the legacy system include increasing the annual domain registration fee from R50 to R75; non-delegation of the applied-for domain name into the .co.za zone until such time as receipt of the domain-name registration fee is confirmed; implementation of a shortened expiry period of 30 days for new domain-name applications; and implementation of a shortened expiry period of 60 days in total from the month in which renewal of a domain becomes due.

The ZACR has asked for written submissions to the proposed changes by no later than 21 September. More details are available here.