The context in which Romania aligns with the European trend is based on the results obtained from the application of the questionnaire “Consultations on the principles of regulation of .ro domains” and provides, starting with March 1, 2018, the introduction of the annual registration and maintenance service for .ro domains.
Those who own .ro domains can pay the value of this service for a desired period, provided that it falls within the range of minimum 1 year and maximum 10 years. In the case of ROTLD (Romania Top Level Domain) accredited registrars, the cost set by the domain registry is 6 euro/year, excluding VAT, and in the case of direct sales on the www.rotld.ro website, the cost is 12 euro/year + VAT – tariff charged by the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest).
The old registration fee had to cover a minimum period of 5 years of maintenance, and the date on which the domains expire was calculated and established according to this aspect. In the case of domains registered before March 1, 2013, a grace period of 3 months is granted for the payment of the service, so the first date on which the domains will expire will be June 1, 2018.
Particular cases, in which there is a transfer of the right of use, will have the transfer as the starting date of the calculation, that of the transfer. Thus, for a domain registered in 2014 and transferred in 2016, the domain will not expire next year, but in 2021.
The mention regarding the expiry dates prior to June 1, 2016, is that they are distributed over a period of 6 months, between June 1, 2018 and November 30, 2018. The calendar months of the registration or transfer will be grouped into two and correlated with one of the 6 months, with the mention that the day is taken over, as follows:
- January – February: June;
- March – April: July;
- May – June: August;
- July – August: September;
- September – October: October;
- November – December: November.
This measure was taken in accordance with the possibility of renewing the .ro domain, if the holder wishes to do so.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, alignment with European practices is one of the logical arguments behind the introduction of this service in Romania – the last country that had not introduced an annual maintenance fee. Other fundamental considerations for making this decision are:
- Compliance with the practices recommended by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the entity responsible for coordinating and maintaining the procedures for regulating Internet practices worldwide;
- Maintaining funds necessary to establish the dimensions of the IT infrastructure;
- Increasing safety and security in operation;
- Creating an advantage through which the names of .ro domains registered more than two decades ago and which are no longer used today, can be unblocked;
- The costs of registration and maintenance services will ensure the stability and security of the RoTLD service.
A useful tool, which can be used at any time to find out the date on which a domain expires, is represented by the website: www.rotld.ro/whois.
