Dear colleagues,
As
we observe the RIPE NCC budget steadily increasing, it is becoming
clear that the current financial burden is disproportionately
distributed.
Realistically, it is likely not feasible to bring RIPE’s
operational costs down significantly, but we can certainly change how
they are covered.
It makes no sense to see small LIR’s “fighting each others” while the big ones ignore this thread. We need a different approach.
With
the number of LIRs expected to decline further—potentially to pre-2018
levels—the "fixed-fee" model is placing small LIRs in an unsustainable
position.
The Mathematical Disparity:
Currently, LIRs holding fewer than 1024 IPs (a /22) represent about 80% of our membership base. Yet, these members hold less than 8% of the total address space, while being forced to cover 80% of the budget !
In
stark contrast, "hyperscalers" and legacy holders manage millions of IP
addresses and generate billions in annual revenue by "renting" this
space to the market in various ways.
It is paradoxical that a small ISP
pays nearly the same membership fee as a global giant that holds a
significant percentage of the entire RIPE resource pool.
The Reality of the "Big Three":
For example, the "Big Three" combined accumulate about 10% of the total RIPE address space, yet I assume they likely pay less than €100,000 per year in total fees. This equals only 0.25% of the RIPE budget.
It is time to move toward a proportionate charging scheme.
"Fair Share" Model:
A "Fair Share" model would ensure that those who benefit most from the resource pool contribute accordingly. For example:
- Asset-Based Fees:
A percentage of the RIPE budget could be funded based on the volume of
IP space held (e.g., a holder of 5% of the space pays 5% of the core
registry costs).
- Administrative Baseline:
A small, flat membership fee would remain to cover basic administrative
costs, ensuring every member still has a voice and a vote.
This is bluntly unjust.
The only fair way forward is for everyone to pay for their own share of
space in connection to the budget.
Nothing more, nothing less. This is a
truly just way of spreading the cost across members—no one pays more
than their fair, proportionate share.
Since small LIRs are the vast majority of the voting block, we have the power to demand this change.
How can we formally initiate a vote to restructure the Charging Scheme for 2026 and beyond?
I
would like to hear from other members who feel that the current model
no longer reflects the reality of our exhausted IPv4 environment.
This was my 2 cents to this discussion. I hope I didn’t tire any of you.
On 22/04/2026 19:29, Kai Siering via members-discuss wrote:
You hit the nail on its head. These different pricing models end up pitting one group vs the other when we all should be demanding that RIPE NCC's budget be capped and reduced. That issue has come up numerous times but unfortunately nothing has ever come of it.
We are therefore doomed to a steadily increasing budget, ad infinitum.
Regards,
Hank
Moin,
I'm still not convinced that the way it is, having the Executive solely approve the Activity Plan – and therefore the costs of RIPE NCC – and the members later on can only decide how these costs are to be paid my the members, is a valid model anymore. From my point of view, 42,500,000 EUR is quite some money to simply run a RIR that started as a simple database with a mnail frontend for regional internet ressources and that amount is what we as members should not only discuss about, but also decide on. If one looks at
https://www.ripe.net/media/documents/ ripe-850.pdf, in 2026 only 246 of each member's 1800 EUR are spend for services related to the Registry itself, a mere 13.6%.
It's not about "buying as cheap as possible", but about right-sizing this membership organisation and the services it provides – to it's members and the Internet in general – to what is strictly neccessary — or at least deemed nice-to-have by vote by a majority of the members.
Therefore it is not the Charging Scheme, the root cause of these repeating discussions is the ever increasing budget of RIPE NCC and the membership's inability to address that.
Regards,
-kai
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