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

[Andrew Alston]

Hi All,

Actually just had a rather interesting discussion on the current policy limitations within AfriNIC, and I speak to hard defined policy here rather than what is currently being done or believed.  Perhaps someone can correct me if I have missed something in the current policies.

Currently, space allocated by AfriNIC to LIR's is in effect a lease, it is a right of use of space in exchange for a financial fee.  I don't think that’s disputed.

Further to this, ISP's all over Africa *DO* sub-lease space to third parties (if I go to an ISP, I get X amount of space from them, if I want additional, I pay more, it’s a sub-lease, be it cost recovery or for profit.)  By definition an LIR assigns rights of use to third parties under it and sub-leases from what I can see.

Now, under the soft landing policy, there is a restriction in there from using that space off continent.  It specifically says in there what the space is to be used for.

That being said, we are *NOT* in soft landing mode, and I can find NOTHING in the current policies which stops a current LIR from sub-leasing space to an entity outside of the geographic region.  

Now, this could be a major flaw in the current policies, and if so, probably needs to be fixed pretty quickly, but if my reading is correct, current policy does allow for an LIR to allocate space to someone off continent.

Let's discuss... we may need another policy amendment :)

Thoughts?

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: rpd-bounces at afrinic.net [mailto:rpd-bounces at afrinic.net] On Behalf Of Mark Elkins
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 9:34 PM
To: AfriNIC Resource Policy Discussion List
Subject: Re: [AFRINIC-rpd] New Policy Proposal: Inter RIR IPv4 Address Transfers (AFPUB-2013-V4-001-DRAFT-01)

On Wed, 2013-01-16 at 21:22 +0300, Maina Noah wrote:
> Chad,

> Since you seem to have free IP Addresses and you are willing to sale.
> This implies you do not have justification for use of this so many IP 
> number resources you were allocated by the RIR.

(I've been quietly reading the ongoing discussions) 

Firstly - with my "I own some Legacy Space" hat on:

I think there is a growing consensus that if space is provided by AfriNIC under the LIR license agreement, it can not be sold and that if it is no longer required - it should be returned to AfriNIC. I suspect this would be the same for all RIR's?

The exception to this would be Legacy Space - as its not as such bound by contract. If Legacy space is sold here and used in another region, then it needs to move to that regions RIR.

If someone comes to me and offers me a large pot of gold for some of my legacy space, I might be hard pressed not to make a sale, then spend that money connecting more people to my network. Someone mentioned US$4 Million for a /16. With that I could (bank)roll out 70Km's of Fibre and connect several thousand new subscribers via FTTH just using IPv6. You see, it's so easy to justify.... 

My "AfriNIC Board of Directors" hat:

I would like to see AfriNIC lease out all its IPv4 address space to African Network operators (etc) within the next year (or two). This way, AfriNIC can collect oodles of money for these resources and thus better fund IPv6 deployment training. This would also imply that more people in Africa are properly connect to the Internet, Universities (etc) better connect students - etc. ie - the African Region wins.
IPv4 after all has only a short time still to live - maybe 10 years?

My "personal hat":

I kind of like the ongoing discussions on "relaxing" restrictions on Universities (and similar) - just perhaps smaller steps first (3:1
ratio?)
I also get the (first hand and voiced by others) impression that maybe AfriNIC is perhaps too over-cautious in providing space to legitimate African Companies who actually need space because the burden of "proof of need" is perhaps too high.

All the current space that AfriNIC has though can not be sold. It can only be leased to the applicant (African Entity) and if AfriNIC makes a not-so-great judgement call based on "white lies" (or truth
exaggeration) from an applicant - the resource can and should be recalled (as appropriate).
-- 
  .  .     ___. .__      Posix Systems - (South) Africa
 /| /|       / /__       mje at posix.co.za  -  Mark J Elkins, Cisco CCIE
/ |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS  Tel: +27 12 807 0590  Cell: +27 82 601 0496