[ARIN-consult] Consultation on ARIN Fees

[Dale W. Carder]

Thus spake ARIN (info at arin.net) on Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 04:38:21PM -0400:
> ARIN’s Fee Schedule has always been based on the principle of equitable cost recovery across our community through a stable and consistent fee schedule. In general, this means that ARIN has avoided making routine changes to the Fee Schedule (for example, making annual readjustments for changing costs) and instead has only made changes when deemed necessary.

I'd challenge the board to consider how the fee schedule could be made
sustainable year over year.  Certainly with other non-profits I've
worked with, a set of published fixed rates doesn't reflect the costs 
of staff & benefits that increase yearly.  Maybe we can get to the point
where there are not stair steps but a socially expected 'n'% increase 
yearly.
 
> We are consulting with the community regarding changes to the ARIN Fee Schedule that are intended for implementation in January of 2022. These changes are:
> 
>     * Transitioning End Users from annual per-resource maintenance fees to the RSP (Registration Services Plan) Fee Schedule

I have always found the end-user vs lir distinction confusing, but I get
why it exists.

Are there also policy changes happening (or have happened) in the NPRM
that coincide with the change here to treat them the same with respect
to services used?  It would appear that this could result in a sizable
bill increase for orgs used to paying per-resource?  Or in practice,
does it come out to a wash in which case the simplification is worth it?

>     * Transitioning Legacy resource holders from annual per-resource maintenance fees to the RSP Fee Schedule while maintaining the annual cap of total maintenance fees (which will increase $25 per year)

This seems totally reasonable.

>     * Providing a temporary IPv6 fee waiver for organizations in the 3X-Small category that desire a larger address block

This seems like a gimmick of penetration pricing and a bit disingenuous in the 
spirit of a membership organization.  

>     * Implementing a $100 fee for OrgCreate and OrgRecovery transactions

I guess I'd be slightly careful here that we don't unnecessarily create
disincentives for correct registrations due to there being a fee for this.
I would have thought this processing fee to be adequately covered in the 
service category fee (bigger categories probably do more of them,
smaller ones less) or bundled into the transfer processing fee (below)

>     * Increasing the transfer processing fee to $500

I would think that the fee here should be the full cost recovery to process the 
transaction.  Is that the case here?

Dale