Hi All,

As a large operator (former telco) who has been in the internet business since the beginning of it and with millions of customers, either option A or B will not solve the shortage of IPv4 blocks.

A large operator also needs “free space” to make huge changes to networks, build new ones in parallel and upgrade to new techniques. So I do not believe that charging more will return “huge” amounts of IPv4, even if they would be “free” at the moment.

Ripe being a non-profit organization will because of this either have to lower the annual fee, or return large parts of the extra income this option B might bring in, or will have to pay large amounts of profit tax to the Dutch tax system.

The executive board last year suggested a more simple billing system, and this was implemented in a way that membership fees will be billed only yearly.

This option B will again make the billing again more complicated.

I helped my customer set up a lir, and had a look in the portal’s billing section. After the initial setup fee and after the refund of last year the annual fee was just a little over 800 euros. I can tell ours is a lot higher since we “sponsor” PI customers etc etc.

What problem are we trying to solve with option B ?

• billing will get more complicated, this is opposite of what was intended.
• option B does not satisfy everyone, neither does option A
• v4 will not become more available.

It may not surprise you that of these 2 options to choose from the one equal to all is the one I support (Option A).

(And this is of course with my private hat on..)

Rgds,

Ray