[Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Resolution 201604.274 about Set-Up fees

[ALAIN AINA]

> On Jul 14, 2016, at 12:27 PM, Alan Barrett <alan.barrett at afrinic.net> wrote:
> 
> [replying only on members-discuss]
> 
>> On 14 Jul 2016, at 11:29, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
>> 
>> On 28 Jun 2016 19:08, "Marcus K. G. Adomey" <madomey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Allow me to restate the questions here once again:
>>> 
>>> What problem are solving?
>>> What options have been evaluated?
>>> What is the meaning of the membership fees, which increase with my category If i have to pay allocations fees anytime i request additional resources?
>>> Shouldn’t the membership fees be turned to a lower maintenance fees at a lower price?
>>> Have we done impact analysis?
>>> What is the foreseen negative impact on membership and how do we mitigate? (Some may not come for additional allocation as they have to pay allocation fees plus increase in membership fees.. )
>>> What is expected impact on revenue and how we plan to use it?
>>> 
>> 
>> We never recieved any feedback to this important questions.
>> 
>> The most recent submission by the chair on the same was not clear either.
> 
> In my opinion all those questions were either answered previously, or were interpreted as rhetorical devices rather than actual questions.  However, I’ll answer them below.
> 
> What problem are we solving?  (a) When the fee structure was defined in 2004, these once-off fees were intended to be once per allocation or assignment,

No. 

AFRNIC is responsible for maintaining accurate and complete registration of Internet number resources in accordance with the policies established by the Internet community.

To provide for an equitable cost recovery process, AFRINIC adopted a fees model[*] which charges an initial transaction fee for the registration of Internet number resources and an annual fee for ongoing registration services(in form of membership fees) as described below:



LIRs

LIRs are allocated IP addresses for distribution to the users of their Internet services. They do sub-allocations and reassignment and report in AFRINIC database.

Initial
========

New LIR pay setup fees(once-off) for account setup which depends of service category. 

New LIR pay an initial fee that corresponds to the service category (IPv4) approved as bulk registrations services fees. This can be prorated depending on period of the year they join.


Annual
=======

LIR pay annual membership fees per category(the total of the IPv4 received in previous year or initial year) as renewal fees every year.


End Users

End users receive IP addresses for use in their internal networks only, and not for distribution to external users of their Internet services.

Initial
========

End-Users pay Assignment fee for each “new" IPv4 address assignment based on the service category approved
End-users pay an initial fee that corresponds to the service category (IPv4) approved as maintenance fees.


Annual
======

End-users pay annual membership fees per category(the total of the assigned IPv4) as  maintenance renewal fees at anniversary date.

 Interesting details in the FAQ : http://www.afrinic.net/en/faqs/billing


> but somehow in the intervening years they were implemented inconsistently, which was a mistake that should be corrected.


The fees model described above have been implemented consistently. So nothing to be corrected.

>  (b) Some members were paying for their requests to be evaluated, and some were not (depending on whether they were an end user or an LIR, and depending on whether it was their first request or a subsequent request), which was unfair on both AFRINIC and the members who were paying.

According to the fees model, no fee was meant for request evaluation…. The model was designed to be somehow fair to LIR and End-users, while making AFRINIC covers operations costs.

End-user are charged per service and pay less  membership fees as maintenance fees.

> (c) AFRINIC needs more revenue, and correcting this past mistake is a simple way of gaining a small increase in revenue.

I think increasing AFRINIC revenue should take a more systemic approach  and not  try to fix what is not broken. Let analyse  the fees model and determine the way forward in the interest of AFRINIC and the members. The RIR future seems to be in Registry data accuracy and not in allocation or assignment.

Hope this helps

—Alain







> 
> What options have been evaluated?  This correction to a past mistake was an easy and obvious change for the short term.   Several possible changes to the fee structure are being considered for the longer term.   When a proposal is ready, it will be made.  
> 
> What is the meaning of the membership fees?  The membership fee is based on the size of the member considering all the resurces held by the member, and is charged annually.  The allocation or assignment fee is based on the  size of each individual allocation or assignment, and is paid only once.
> 
> Shouldn’t the fees be lower?  Of course that would be nice, but it’s not realistic.
> 
> Have we done impact analysis?  Yes.  The expected positive effect on revenue is about USD 200k per year, based on a simulation using data from 2015.
> 
> What is the foreseen negative impact on membership?  None.  New members will pay exactly the same as before when they join and receive their first allocation or assignment.  Existing members will pay exactly the same as before unless they come back for an additional allocation or assignment.
> 
> What is the impact on revenue?  Already answered: $200k per year.
> 
> How do we plan to use the money?  For AFRINIC operations.
> 
> 
> Alan Barrett
> 
> 
> 
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