[arin-discuss] Food for thought: IPv4 accountability.

[rob servis]

> > IPv4 runout merely means that while your out-of-IPv4, your
> > competitors will simply make more and more money than you.  It
> > doesn't mean that you will start LOSING money.  You will make the
> > same money you have always made.  If your feeding yourself and your
> > family, then you will continue to do so.
>
> Your train of thought is bizarre. If a customer cannot grow within an
> ISP, they leave. That is lost revenue.
>

At first blush, I would have agreed with Ted.  For many small to medium
sized ISPs --- growth re-assignments to commercial end users are mostly
limited to very large customers who really need their own IP space.  It is
not very common for customers with small /29 or /28s to come back and need
more IPs.

However, the biggest need for IP growth is the shift from very efficient
dialup --- where there is a 6:1 or better ratio between customers and IPs to
the broadband world (cable, DSL, wireless) where you only have a 1:1 ratio.
In that case we do lose revenue if we don't have IPs to assign to DSL pools.
We don't have an upgrade path to convert those dialups to DSL or wireless if
we are out of IPs.  We lose money if we can't keep converting the same $$$
from dialup to broadband.

Rob Servis
RASER, Inc.