[arin-discuss] fee waivers

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> but this case would be covered under "community networking" which had
a
> separate policy process and the arin community already ruled against
> fee waivers in this case. i am not reraising that issue, dead is dead.
> however, it's worth keeping the record straight, an IX with legitimate
> participants can still in some cases have no bank account.

Bottom line then is that most end users don't need a fee waiver
because IPv6 is free from their ISP and they should have no
problem getting a /48 even if the ISP normally hands out smaller
prefixes.

End users who really, really need to have a portable assignment 
can pay a one time fee to ARIN and that fee is already low enough
that we don't consider it a barrier to IPv6 deployment.

There are some few organizations that are in the position of
a charitable endeavor of sorts, like community networks and
small free IXes. ARIN already considered a special deal for
them and decided against it. This is not really a barrier to
IPv6 adoption because it affects few organizations. Also, the
ISPs who use this IX for v4, don't absolutely have to use the
IX in order to have functioning v6 service. Nobody expects
the transition to v6 to be a smooth process full of sweetness
and light so if your traffic has to go to Chicago and back
that is not enough reason for ARIN to step in.

And finally, ARIN doesn't run the Internet. ARIN is not in
charge of the IPv6 transition. ARIN doesn't have to provide
concessions for every category of problem related to the
IPv6 transition. If the ISPs in question do not see any 
value in coughing up a few hundred bucks each to keep the
IX functioning through the transition, then case closed.

--Michael Dillon

P.S. Nevertheless, the suggestion box is there. Perhaps someone
might suggest that ARIN allocate one free block to every IX in
the region that is registered in peeringdb just for goodwill
and to give the IPv6 transition a bit of a kick and create
a media event that can be used to publicise how close we
are to IPv4 runout. If anyone cares about this then it is 
worth a try at the suggestion box
<https://www.arin.net/app/suggestion/>