I
support what Adrian has said here. As a small ISP we don’t
have enough addresses to cover all of our customers, let
alone our own infrastructure as well. Prices from brokers
are in the region of EUR12 per IP, which is simply not
possible to justify for a small company. The problems of not
having enough addresses means relying on CGNAT to get
customers connected, and all the issues that come with it.
Not such a problem for mobile providers, but providers of
fixed-line broadband have a much harder time with this
technology.
Sure
IPv6 is the solution, but until we’re past the threshold
where the majority of content is IPv6 enabled we still have
to supply public IPv4 addresses to all customers in some
form.
I’d
like to see governments selling its stock of unused
addresses to local business that can prove a need at an
affordable price. Everyone wants to sell their IPs to fund
their own IPv6 rollouts. Great, so the little guys have to
spend their cash on extortionate IPv4 prices just to keep
up, stalling or preventing their own IPv6 rollouts, while
the bigger players get their rollouts partially funded. If
businesses can show they’re planning to or currently rolling
out IPv6, they should have fairer access to IPv4 resources
while they continue those plans. I think the RIRs need to
step in and help here.
The
current rules are a good middle ground, however, as a
relatively new ISP we can only access one /22 per LIR. Newer
entities, such as us, do not have legacy IPv4 space which
immediately inhibits growth and competition in the ISP
marketplace.
A
fairer policy would be to allocate for a LIR’s justifiable
needs, taking into account their current allocations; but
for RIPE to retain an override on these allocations. By
monitoring for any unused space it would be possible to
remove any unused to be recycled.
Also,
governments and larger organisations are sat on huge IPv4
real estate that is not in use. This is another area that
needs exploring.
After
all, IPv6 isn’t ubiquitous yet, so something constructive
has to be done.
As
someone that would profit from this i am absolutely
against it.
RIPE
exists for specific reasons - selling out IPs is not one
of them, and the legacy market as well as inter-RIR
transfers cover the business needs at this time.
The
current merger rules are a good middle way.
Consulting,
Security & Management - Tel-Aviv, Israel / Rijeka,
Croatia
https://ip6.im - No RIPE
LIR? Still read this email for some reason? Grab a /40
*free* IPv6 space for BGP usage. Or just get it
anyway, can't hurt to have.