[AFRINIC-rpd] New Policy Proposal: Inter RIR IPv4 Address Transfers (AFPUB-2013-V4-001-DRAFT-01)

[McTim]

Hi,

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 6:01 PM, David Conrad <drc at virtualized.org> wrote:
> McTim,
>
> On Jan 11, 2013, at 9:01 PM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> For example, policies to increase Internet deployment in the African region, promote migration to IPv6, advance efforts to educate regional government regulators/policymakers/etc. on Internet technologies and implications, etc.
>>>
>>> My impression is that there is consensus within the African region (and elsewhere) that these are all useful policy goals to pursue.
>>
>> They are useful goals indeed.
>
> At least we agree on one thing :).


We probably agree on many things ;-)

>
>> Allowing LIRs to flog address space may not be the route to achieving them however.
>
> I'm not suggesting LIRs flogging addresses is the way to meet those policy goals, rather I'm observing that assuming current consumption trends continue, AfriNIC will increasingly find itself in the enviable but somewhat awkward position of being steward to vastly more commercially valuable resources than the other RIRs at a time when demand will be far outpacing supply.
>

Understood.  Awkward is ok by me.  I think we would be in a much more
awkward position if we said to African gov'ts:  " I know we have been
saying for the last decade that we have lots of IP resources for
Africa, they aren't for sale, but only for a kind of "lease" but now
we have decided they are a good revenue source, so we are going to
transfer some to China (or some other economy for a truck load of
money"



> According to http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html, AfriNIC is projected to have IPv4 addresses nearly 7 years after all the other RIRs have exhausted their free pools. Perhaps I am too cynical, but I am a bit skeptical that this is a likely or even viable outcome given the (ever increasing) amount of money and inter-governmental politics involved.
>
> As I said in an earlier note, I think it is unfortunate that such a demand outpacing supply situation can't be leveraged to drive AfriNIC consensus policy goals.
>
>> If we as a community want to transfer address space to further
>> community goals, then perhaps we should transfer from the RIR in order
>> to fund these activities.
>
> That might be an interesting question to explore.
>
>> However that is not the proposal in front
>> of us.  The current proposal was made by an address broker seemingly
>> as a way for his company to make revenue.  I don't think that is in
>> our interests.
>
> I don't actually care whether the current registrant makes money on the addresses -- I long ago gave up on expecting life to be "fair".  I do, however, care about making efficient use of limited resources and idle addresses strikes me as inefficient.
>
> As mentioned in my previous note, I don't have a position on the proposal (with apologies if this is seen as thread hijacking). I would, however, observe that the address space in question has already been allocated and, at least in theory, the transfer of that address space would mean that it would move to actually being used for Internet connectivity rather than just sitting idle in some virtual warehouse.
>
> An alternative, of course, would be for AfriNIC to attempt to revoke that address space as attempts to sell the addresses would sort of imply they weren't being used for the purpose for which they were allocated.  Perhaps this approach is more feasible in the AfriNIC region than in other regions.
>
>> I understand AA point about running out at the same time, I just don't
>> think we can get there at this point.
>
> Out of curiosity, why not?

I think we would have needed to start many years ago on a global
policy for this, and that regional differences would have made the
crafting of such a policy quite difficult.


>
>> I'm not sure we are hoarding now, rather, I see it as responsible stewardship.
>
> Perhaps another interesting question to explore is whether that stewardship is to the region or to the Internet as a whole.
>


indeed.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel