[Community-Discuss] Blog: A Comprehensive audit of the AFRINIC WHOIS Database

[Owen DeLong]

> On Feb 9, 2021, at 14:11 , Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:

> 

> Hi AFRINIC Team,

> 

> While reading the report, I noted that among the recommendations on how to make things better, was below.

> 

> The report recommends that the AFRINIC community critically assess how best the accuracy of the information pertaining to Legacy Resource Holders can be improved and considers whether unused legacy resources should be left idle while AFRINIC exhausts its remaining pool of IPv4 addresses.

> How much unused legacy resources are we looking at?  


There is literally no way to know whether legacy resources are used or not. There are rare cases where it can be determined that resources are unused or at least no longer used by their holder of record (e.g. the holder of record no longer exists, or the holder of record explicitly returns or transfers the resources). There are common cases where it can easily be determined that the resources are utilized (they are announced by the holder of record or a legitimate designee in a publicly visible BGP table).

However, unannounced legacy resources are mostly in an unknown state of utilization and it is essentially impossible to determine whether or not they are actually in use.


> Should we not add that space to the free pool for future allocations?   


If you can properly and sufficiently identify it, then sure.

Owen


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