<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US">Hi Fernando,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US">First, I find it important to remind you that the Internet is ONE. Moreover, the African region will immensely benefit from this activity, how? African ISPs/ network-holders can start leasing out unused IPs, creating a whole connectivity ecosystem, which primarily can help them generate more income, and more prominently, small scale enterprises/ tech start-ups…etc., will also thrive through IP leasing instead of dedicating a large portion of their capital to pay RIR membership fees. Additionally, the organizations that have the capacity to lease IP addresses to richer countries (i.e., Australia) will definitely generate an important profit that will be used for the striving of internet connectivity worldwide. If you do not see that as an economic growth incentive and a comparative advantage, I suggest you give it a second thought.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US">As a matter of fact, all RIRs allow IP leasing, and inter-RIR resources transfer, because there is no harm in liberating number resources and allowing them to be globally transferrable. It is important to realize that, in this day and age, the whole concept of the Internet is rooted in openness, freedom and sharing, if you start elaborating restrictive laws and regulations, the internet will be no different from a communist government, which can lead to catastrophic repercussions.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US">To sum up, number resources are valuable assets and should be used in a strategic and intelligent way, which can be beneficial for the whole Internet, while of course maintaining its cooperative nature.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US">Best,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Le mer. 7 juil. 2021 à 23:51, Fernando Frediani <<a href="mailto:fhfrediani@gmail.com">fhfrediani@gmail.com</a>> a écrit :<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>There are several points and places that make it cristal clear
that the idea of IP Leasing is not just something absurd in terms
of IP usage but also against different rules in place. However
some keep repeating the words are not written in the way "they"
would like to read and ignoring all that just because that might
go against their business.</p>
<p>All that Noah put below makes sense even to a newbie in Internet
Business so any company who need smaller allocations get them from
their LIR which provides connectivity and that's the main propose
these LIRs justified the need of these addresses when they were
request to AfriNic. These business are developing internet in
Africa by allocating internet resources for the purposes of
enabling communications which is also provided by these same
businesses. What communications are enabled by a member who has
unused resources and is renting it to another member - or worst -
in many cases to <b>a member of another RIR elsewhere</b> -
therefore out of the region?<br>
</p>
<p>What promotion of responsible management of Internet resources is
being done <b>throughout the African region</b> when a member
simply rent these resources to someone out of the region ? What
development and operation of Internet infrastructure is being done
in Africa ?</p>
<p>Every unused resource with hold by a member is one chunk of less
of resources in AfriNic's pool. What is the point of exhausting
that pool completely and force newcomers to pay a higher price for
the same resources they could get directly from AfriNic if these
unused resources simply used for renting would have been returned
back to AfriNic pool ? AfriNic looses newer members and in turn
these companies become dependent from another company whose
business is not transporting a single bit throughout the African
region.</p>
<p>Isn't all that enough to stop those who blindly keep trying to
make IP Leasing and usage out of the region something normal and
that should be accepted by AfriNic ?</p>
<p>Fernando<br>
</p>
<div>On 07/07/2021 13:15, Noah wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 1:06
AM Anthony Ubah <<a href="mailto:ubah.tonyiyke@gmail.com" target="_blank">ubah.tonyiyke@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Hi Noah,<br>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Hi Oga Ubah,</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">What you describe sounds nice if you are one
of the established ISPs who are running a top to bottom
network. However you can not say the same for smaller
enterprises, too small to be an LIR, and unable to run
full operations profitably, giving inability to afford the
RIR/AFRINIC fees.</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>RIR membership fees are annual and AFRINIC today has
close to 200 resource members across the region both large
and small.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I know a good number of small enterprises across the
eastern coast of Africa that get sub-allocations of /29,
/28, /26 to /24 from ISP (LIR's) providing them with
connectivity or hosting services. This practise is common
and it enables such small enterprises who don't need to
become AFRINIC resource members to enjoy internet related
services through ISP or hosting providers infrastructure on
the continent.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I similarly know of hyperscalers who provide compute and
storage services across their infrastructure to a wide range
of customers and each service comes with some assignment of
an integer which is fundamental to provision of the IP
related services of (compute, storage, applications) enabled
by integer wrapped in the service to enable IP
communication. Customers are not paying hyperscalers or
hosting providers for an integer but a service.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<p>AFRINIC Bylaws Section 3.4) Sections i. and
iii. Below talk about <b>enabling communication to assist
in the development of the Internet in Africa and promote
responsible management of number resources</b> and not
leasing/brokering.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i>i. to provide the service of <b>allocating
and registering Internet resources for the purposes of
enabling communications </b>via open system network
protocols and to assist in the development and growth of
the Internet in the African region;</i></p>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i>iii. to promote <b>responsible management
of Internet resources</b> throughout the <b>African
region</b>, as well as the <b>responsible development
and operation of Internet infrastructures; </b></i><span><b><i> </i> </b></span></p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"> I feel total reliance on network
providers/carriers also limits flexibility</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>As far as I am concerned, we have had multiple customers
who wanted their own managed INR beyond what we as an LIR
can sub-allocate as part of the connectivity services they
enjoy from us and we encouraged and guided them to seek
small blocks from AFRINIC. This turned out to be a much
cheaper alternative than going to brokers and folks who
lease each IPv4 for 30USD without providing any Internet
related service to the customer beyond dashing out IP's with
LOA's. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>AFRINIC FYI, does more than just allocating and managing
INR. Read Bylaws section 3.4 in full to understand her
complete objectives as an RIR for this region.</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
No textbook analogy. IP leasing can allow the
enterprise/organizations certain flexibility in
administration. Like having a single contiguous range to
numbers on all their interfaces and infrastructure
either locally and across the cloud, for better
administration and scaling of their network they need.
This way all their IPs are unique and contiguous, and
they can number their offices networks, servers, VPN
etc. for easy management.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>So Yes, fully (physical)provider independent. Without
the physical connection to provider being involved, that
provider will still be there of course, but the end user
is not forced to number their LAN with that provider's
IP addresses.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Ooooh well.... last I checked ... AFRINIC is provider
Independent and has alway been.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So I encourage you to encourage those enterprises to
reach out to AFRINIC. All they need is to become resource
members, sign an RSA and justify their needs and they will
be served. AFRINIC manager INR transfers within the region
as well. </div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
On another note, AFRINIC itself would give out such IP
addresses as assignments with the same justifications,
These provider-independent address space (PI) has some
limitations in the current CPM. The PIs assignments are
also called "leasing", and well.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There is no language in the CPM that indicates that PI
assignments are also called <b>leasing</b>. Please point me
to such a language.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>However, Section 9.0 talks of temporary assignments of
not more than one month in section 9.2 and this is often
done by AFRINIC to support Internet related events and
capacity building and education activities through various
Af* initiatives (AIS, NOG's etc) as per the Bylaws section
3.4 iv.) v.) and vi.). </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This short term assignment as far I know is done for free
and AFRINIC does not charge the temporary requesters any
fees.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div> </div>
<div>AFRINIC as a non profit organisation should not place
itself in direct competition with its members.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Which members is AFRINIC competing with exactly? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Resource owners are restricted from leasing,</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div>There is no such thing as a Resource owner. What there
is, is Membership.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<p><b>Bylaws section 6.1 subsection i.) talks of
Membership as below.</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p>6) <b>MEMBERSHIP</b></p>
<p>6.1) Subject to the other provisions of this
Article, membership shall be open to:</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div><i><span>i. any Person who is
geographically based within, and<font color="#990000"> <b>providing
services in the African region</b></font>, and who
is engaged in the </span><span><b><font color="#cc0000">use of</font></b></span><span><font color="#cc0000">,</font>
or <b><font color="#990000">business of
providing, open system protocol network services;</font></b></span></i></div>
<div> </div>
<div>So to break down the above for you, the language talks of
<i><b>engaged in the<span> </span><span>use of</span></b></i><span> and not leasing or brokering
IPv4's but rather ''<b><i>use of</i></b>" meaning using
the IP</span><span> </span><span>to provide internet related
services in the Afrinic region on some</span><span> </span><span>network or system
infrastructure.</span></div>
<div><span><br>
</span></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>while the registry can lease out space as described
in the policy, placing AFRINIC in a very awkward
situation.<br clear="all">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>AFRINIC does not lease, it allocates to LIR's and assigns
members who seek PI INR's....</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<p>CPM Section <span style="color:rgb(32,90,115)">5.4.6.2</span> reads as below
and still talks of <font color="#cc0000"><b>use</b></font></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div><i><span>5.4.6.2</span><span> <font color="#990000"><b>AFRINIC
resources are for</b> </font><b><font color="#990000">AFRINIC service region</font></b> <b>and</b>
</span><span><b><font color="#000000">any </font><font color="#ff0000">use</font><font style="text-decoration-line:underline" color="#990000"> </font><font color="#990000">outside the region should be solely
in support of </font><font color="#000000">connectivity</font><font color="#990000"> back to the </font><font color="#000000">AFRINIC region</font></b></span></i></div>
<div><span><b><br>
</b></span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font face="Helvetica Neue">Cheers,</font></div>
<div><span>Noah</span></div>
<div><span><b><br>
</b></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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