[AFRINIC-rpd] AFRINIC Response to Government Calls for an Arab RIR

[Owen DeLong]

> Yes, you could argue language and culture... but realistically?  Ripe
> represents how many countries with how many diverse languages and cultures,
> and it works, same with AfriNIC, same with LACNIC, same with APAN.  So, not
> sure I really buy this.

I think you meant APNIC there. APAN is an industry consortium, but not an RIR.

> Fact, Africa still has loads of IPv4 space, and burn rates which are
> predicted to end it in something like 7 years.

Hopefully internet deployment in Africa will accelerate such that that number
is brought significantly closer. Otherwise, Africa will have kind of missed the
digital revolution in a relatively big way and be way way way far on the wrong
side of the digital divide.

> Fact, RIPE has run out of space, there is no more.

RIPE is in austerity, but they still have some space.

> Fact, a LOT of the Arabic countries still fall under RIPE, and can't get
> space.

I suspect some of them may fall under APNIC as well.

> Form a new RIR, and with AfriNIC's current burn rate, it is ENTIRELY
> possible that IANA could be lobbied to take space from AfriNIC and give it
> to the new RIR considering our burn rates.  What does this mean?  Suddenly a
> bunch of countries who currently cannot get space have access to resources.
> Forget the North African countries, I'm talking about the ones currently in
> the RIPE region.  Which means, we will see an outflow of space meant for
> Africa into places that aren't African.  

IANA has no authority to take space from AfriNIC unless AfriNIC volunteers,
so I'm not sure what good such lobbying would do. There's no policy anywhere
which enables IANA to revoke space from an RIR once issued. Any policy
to that effect would have to go through the global policy process. That means
that every region would have to pass a substantially identical policy through
their particular PDP and then it would be submitted to the ASO and eventually
have to be ratified by the ICANN board prior to being implemented. Since
AfriNIC could easily say "no" to said policy, that amounts to veto power.

The only other way for AfriNIC space to go to a new RIR would be if AfriNIC
chose to return the space to IANA or transfer the space to the new RIR along
the lines of the ERX process.

> I said in 2010 in Tanzania, the world would come for the African IP space if
> we didn't use it... my take on this... and as I said, its suspicion without
> proof, here is the latest attempt, and this is one is actually pretty
> clever.  While hijack space when you take it this way?  It amounts to the
> same as forming fake African entities and taking the space off continent in
> that way.  

If that's what this is, it's an ill-advised and ill-informed attempt to do so since
creating a new RIR would not create any opportunity to take AfriNIC addresses
unless AfriNIC were to voluntarily hand them over.

> Smart... but no thanks... 

Methinks perhaps a little less conspiracy theory and a little more fact checking
would be in order.

Owen