The $ Requirement of Running a Registry

[CraigSimon@aol.com]

Hi, 

I'm trying to figure out what the smallest commercially viable TLD registry
could be if it complied with the GP's specifications. In other words, would it
need 50,000 registrants, 500,000, or more to make a profit?

Has anyone broken out the prices already?

What follows are the points in the GP. I'm putting in some wild guesses (go
ahead and laugh at them), just as a starting point, but I'm hoping people here
(Jay?) can provide better numbers base on real world experience.


System
1.a   25,000   Hardware providing registrars with FCFS access.
1.b                Hardware which 24/7 and scalable                           
1.c   35,000   Two T1s and related connectivity (yearly)
1.d     5,000   Backup and archive 
1.e     5,000   Transaction tracking
1.f                 Whois
1.g                Registrar Port
1.h    50,000  Two zone servers (presuming T1s)

1.x  100,000   (unstated requirements, like staff, promotion, insurance)

Policies
2.a              Dispute resolution forum
2.b              Failsafe Plan
2.c     200   Staff training
2.d     800   Bulletproofing

Site requirements

3.a     2,000  Power backup
3.b   30,000   24/7 security
3.c   40,000   Redundant site with "hot switchover" capability

Rounding these numbers some more, my estimate implies around $200,000 in
annual operating costs, plus a startup investment of around nearly $100,000.
My guesses are so  "out of the blue,"  I won't try to defend or justify them. 

Now let's say the registry charges $10 per entry. This implies sustaining a
level of about 25,000 entries over a period of years in order to expect to
make any money over the long run. 

Would anyone care to shoot these numbers down?

Thanks

Craig Simon