From IGN:

Call of Duty: Black Ops for PC will ship with dedicated server support this November, but there's a catch if you want to run your own server. 

Activision and Treyarch studios announced GameServers.com will be the exclusive dedicated server provider when the game launches.

"We are extremely excited about this unprecedented relationship with Activision to offer dedicated servers exclusively for Black Ops", said GameServers CEO David Aninowsky. "We are placing a great amount of pressure on ourselves to ensure that we exceed any and all expectations."

According to GameServers' pre-order page, ranked servers will cost $14.95 a month for an 18 max player limit. Discounts are offered for monthly prepays. Unranked servers will cost $0.99 a month per player up to maximum of 24. Teamspeak support will have an additional fee. Discounts will be offered for a 3, 6, and 12 month prepay.

Treyarch Community Manager Josh Olin said this partnership will provide high-quality private servers at an affordable rate for the game and re-emphasized Treyarch-hosted dedicated servers will remain free.

"If players want to run a dedicated Ranked or Unranked server on the PC, they will have to rent one through GameServers," Olin told IGN. "Treyarch will be providing a fleet of 'Day-1 Servers' (through GameServers) which will be up and operational on November 9th.

"Nobody will have to rent a dedicated server through GameServers in order to play the game," says Olin. "But for anybody who wants to run their own server, it will be run from GameServers.com."

Olin added that this partnership adds the advantage of much more effective anti-cheating and hacking moderation.

"If you rent a server, you will still have the ability to Kick, Ban, and Configure it the way you see fit," Olin added. "Of course Ranked servers will have some set configurations that can't be messed with; but you will still have the power to administrate your servers as a customer of GameServers."

lol they make it seem like you couldnt do that before with your own dedicated servers... ill pass =) i just hope that battlefield 3 will let us create our own dedicated

Its a step forward from MW2, still i prefer the good old days

To own a server has always cost money. This isn't anything new. But I should note that owning a server is owning a constant dedicated server that never goes down that you control and that you can modify to fit your needs. Its not just that you get to be the host or something. 

*facepalm*

If you want you own server you will need to pay for hosting!

This is EXACTLY the same with other PC games!

Not much new here, however it seems they've removed the possibility of hosting your own server. And I mean it literally: literally hosting the server yourself. Also, there's only one service provider which I almost expect to be owned by Activision. That, or they have a very sweet deal with Activision, otherwise it wouldn't be exclusive.

Not as bad as the horrible copied-from-consoles p2p shit but still bad. It doesn't get much worse with dedicated servers. At least the prices aren't bad (though I can't understand by what they used when they decided unranked servers should cost more for the same player count...).

Bullshit. I can run a dedicated server on my machine, or a server I already own without spending anything. Game servers are usually quite lightweight, so they can be run on an existing server.

But even if you were right, this is still different as it means you only have one place to host servers at. So the ability to look for the best prices is gone.

NJ5 is right.

18 players max? What? Don't tell me it has the same limit as MW2!

And most of MW2 game modes were 12 player. Is it the same for Black Ops? How poor!