[rpd] inputs on IPv4 Inter-RIR policy proposals - AFRINIC needs this policy now!

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <CAEqgTWbva0gtKYkVG85TVn1Ov_H7axQOU5yGp8KbxtjKTa-8wA at mail.gmail.com>, 
Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:

>Wouldn't it be much wiser for AfriNIC to lobby on behalf of its members for
>more space into the continent rather than through a broker based mechanism.

The only thing I can say in response is what I have just posted in my
immediately prior message, which is that in July, 2017, Mr. Alston
posted to this very list, clarifying that "Afrinic resources" need not
be used in or on "the continent" (as you put it), and that there
existed no Afrinic regulation which would require that.

   https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2017/007353.html

I have no basis to dispute that, and I do assume that Mr. Alston knew of
what he was speaking at the time.

Given that even the resources that have been granted, assigned, however
one wishes to put it, to Afrinic, need not be used, specifically, to
support the growth and/or operation of the Internet IN AFRICA, it seems
to me that the question of -moving- resources from one RIR to another
is essentially an irrelevancy if one's goal is either to preserve or
to enhance the amount of number resources that either are now, or that
will be, in future, actually be used in or on the continent.

In other words, what would be the point of insisting that number
resources must flow only inwards, to Afrinic, from other RIRs,
if all such resources, along with the ones that Afrinic already
holds (and which it has already largely allocated) can all be
sold tomorrow to some paper entity, incorporated in the Seychelles,
and which has -zero- actual operations within the continent of
Africa?

If anyone has a goal of maximizing the quantity of number resources
that are actually used in or on the continent, then the first order
concern of any such party should surely be the current and pre-existing
lack of geography-specific utilization requirements, with the question
of Inter-RIR transfers being rather entirely secondary to that.


Regards,
rfg