[rpd] Pushing IPv6 ? Re: Questions about IP Allocation rate

Tue Oct 14 18:08:02 UTC 2025

Good points Sami, but I am not a fan of leaving it indefinitely, that will
make it become useless to generation to come nor will it be useful for
present generation.

So long as there are legitimate need/use for v4 at the moment, it make
sense at some point in the near future to use the reserve. This can be
through tieing allocation to a more intentional or aggressive V6 deployment
requirements.

A policy that makes v4 to be an add-on to V6 allocation/deployment may be a
good use of the reserved space. Otherwise the future generation which will
be more V6 aware/exposed than you and I may not find so many use cases for
v4 at their time.

Regards
----
Sent from my mobile
kindly excuse typos

On Tue, 14 Oct 2025, 11:59 am Sami Salih, <sami.salih at outlook.com> wrote:

> That said, relying on African governments may be reasonable for countries
> with stable economic and political conditions. However, given the conflicts
> and instability present in several regions across the continent, it's wise
> to preserve sufficient resources for future generations, who may otherwise
> face significant scarcity.
> On a related note, the reserved IP blocks come at no cost. They don’t
> require active maintenance or storage infrastructure, just basic protection
> against misuse or hijacking. These reserves can be kept indefinitely. And
> once IPv6 becomes the dominant protocol, we can simply "let them go!". But
> for now, we need to keep our resources.
>
> Sami Salih,
>
>
> Sent from Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* jordi.palet--- via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 14, 2025 7:06:14 PM
> *To:* RPD <rpd at afrinic.net>
> *Subject:* Re: [rpd] Pushing IPv6 ? Re: Questions about IP Allocation rate
>
> I would agree with you if all the economies have the same resources (not
> just economical ones, but also human resources, expertise, etc.), but we
> know is not the case.
>
> Now a different  history is if any ISP in 1-2 years from now, has not *at
> least* started their deployment plans. In such a situation, I think it is a
> clear matter of governments, in their duty to protect citizens, taking
> strong actions against any service provider or industry not doing so. Of
> course that means the government networks itself need to use IPv6: they
> need to set the example, otherwise you can’t enforce it.
>
> Today deploying a *new* network using 464XLAT is even cheaper and easier
> than doing so with IPv4 or dual-stack. So this must be clearly enforced to
> obtain new licenses, as there is no excuse. This is valid for either
> cellular networks, broadband networks or even for enterprise networks using
> IPv6-mostly.
>
> I fully understand that is not the same for an existing network, that’s
> why they should have some more time, but at least have *clearly structured*
> plans, not just “yes we are thinking on that” ...
>
> Saludos,
> Jordi
>
> @jordipalet
>
>
> El 14 oct 2025, a las 17:14, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> escribió:
>
> If it isn’t already deployed, I question this at this point. How long
> should the rest of the internet subsidize failure to deploy? Personally, I
> think we are past that point.
>
> Owen
>
>
> On Oct 14, 2025, at 02:05, jordi.palet--- via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net> wrote:
>
> Agree, however, we know very well that a small IPv4 pool (may be a /24
> for each BGP PoP), is needed for interconnection with IPv4 Internet, as
> there may be still some old apps that require it.
>
> Regards,
> Jordi
>
> @jordipalet
>
>
> El 14 oct 2025, a las 10:46, Owen DeLong via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net>
> escribió:
>
> Yes, exactly. The continuing presence of an IPv4 free pool at AFRINIC and
> the efforts to keep it from running out are actually counterproductive to
> progress in the African digital economy.
>
> Owen
>
>
> On Oct 14, 2025, at 01:22, Hendrik Visage <hvisage at hevis.co.za> wrote:
>
>  Question:
>
>  Shouldn’t we rather consider pushing IPv6 deployment assistance across
> Africa? ie. let the rest of the IPv4 go ASAP without much resistance
> instead of making this a begging/pleading/fighting game?
>
> ARIN (North America) & RIPE (Europe) serviced areas are way ahead of IPv6
> roll outs, ‘cause they don’t have any left, and looking at AfriNIC services
> countries, we are still have an abundance of IPv4, so IPv6 percentage roll
> outs are very low, and rathe we should be pushing to mirror the IPv6
> percentage rollout and usage rather than fighting over the few remaining
> IPv4s if we want to grow digital rollouts.
>
> Perhaps even moving to a state of: “You can have IPv6, once you’ve proven
> a complete IPv6 rollout can you get anymore IPv4"
>
> ---
> Hendrik Visage
> Instant messaging: https://t.me/hvisage
>
>
> On 13 Oct 2025, at 16:43, Andrew Alston <aa at alstonnetworks.net> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I was wondering if there were updated statistics for the amount of space
> allocated in the last 3 years.  In addition to this information regarding
> exactly how much free space is still available in the IPv4 unallocated pool
> (excluding reservations)
>
> I ask this because depending on the allocation rate - we may wish to
> consider revising the soft-landing policy that currently reserves a /12
> worth of ipv4 space for "future uses, as yet unforeseen".
>
> I point out that the soft landing policy was ratified in 2011, and if we
> still, after 14 years, have not been able to articulate a clear reason for
> such a large reservation, I think it's time we look at most, if not all, of
> that /12 back into the main unallocated pool that can be allocated for
> African resource holders that actually need it.
>
> Amongst other reasons, sitting with unallocated, unannounced, reserved
> space like this leaves the space vulnerable to hijacking and malicious use
> or even potential theft.
>
> Thanks
>
> Andrew
>
>
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>
> ---
>
> Hendrik Visage
>
> hvisage at hevis.co.za
>
>
> HeViS.Co Systems Pty Ltd
>
> https://www.envisage.co.za
>
>
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