[ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region

[Calvin Browne]

Lee,

On Wed, 2003-10-01 at 23:04, Lee Howard wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Bill Woodcock wrote:
> 
> > Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2003 03:25:19 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net>
> > To: Mury <mury at goldengate.net>
> > Cc: William Stucke <William at zanet.co.za>, ppml at arin.net
> > Subject: RE: [ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for
> >     the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region
> > 
> >       On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Mury wrote:
> >     > If the problem lies with these monopolies not giving IPs to their
> >     > downstream customers, why are they going to cooperate and route IPs
> >     > allocated from ARIN?
> > 
> > Again, nobody asks them to cooperate.  ISPs simply tunnel through them,
> > and announce the prefixes to transit providers in other locations where
> > market forces make them more cooperative.
> > 
> >                                 -Bill
> 
> I'm still confused, trying to draw a network diagram and see if I 
> understand the situation.  

some slight confusion - generally the provision of ISP services is
'competitive' - in that any one can provide the services. It generally
has to be done over the monopoly PTT's copper. The PTT is also an ISP.
There are normally a couple of first tier ISP's with their links
overseas leased through the monopoly PTT. Sometimes there may even be
more than one International provider (just DON'T use VoIP!).

Having a look at http://ispmap.org.za/ particularly the previous maps
might help understand it further.

> 
> Let's say I'm Joe Bob's ISP, Bait and Tackle in Botswana. 
> 
> I have 1000 dial-up ports, but my tyrannical upstream (who I'm legally
> obligated to use because it's a government/monopoly PTT) won't give me
> more than a /26 because I might be competing with them.  Or because
> they don't understand that my plan to multihome means I justify a /24,
> and that they can apply to ARIN for more space when they've used 80%.
> 
> Cleverly using traceroute, I find that BotswanaNet.bw has connectivity
> through MegaISP.za, so I call up MegaISP.za and explain my plight.  
> They sympathize with me and the money I offer them, and they allocate
> me a /22 so I can now number all of my equipment, and we set up a GRE
> tunnel (to an address from my .bw IP space) so I can route that /22.  
> However, I still can't multihome, because AnotherISP.za is not going
> to accept MegaISP.za address space coming from me. 
> 
> To compound the problem, either A) I can't afford a leased line to
> either big ISP or B) Botswana law prohibits me from using another
> provider.  I may actually be breaking the law by using non-Botswanan
> address space.

we generally need to distinguish between Telco Provider and ISP
provider. I've yet to see a place where IP address space was legislated
(although the SA monopoly PTT did try to have IP declared in their
exclusive domain and a telecoms service).

> 
> This is the most common configuration in sub-equatorial Africa?
> 
> I have no position on this policy proposal--I don't understand the
> need for it well enough to judge.  I am grateful for the participation
> of the African community, and I hope we'll continue to see you on
> other policy discussions.

I'm still uncomfortable with AfriNIC people getting involved with
2002-3. I don't know enough about N. American networking to understand
it. Anyone who sees me supporting 2002-3 needs to weigh up that fact and
adjust my support accordingly (This should by no means be interpreted as
saying that 2002-3 should not be passed, just that *I* have no idea).
But when it comes to Africa, well, in the past month or two, I've
interacted with Kenyans, Ghanaians, Zimbabweans, Rwandans, Tanzanians,
Tunisian, Mozambicans, Sudanese and in fact, yesterday I got a call from
someone involved with the regulator in Botswana asking about setting up
a peering point (I'm going to put him onto the appropriate people
shortly as this is not my forte).

> 
> 
> Lee

--Calvin

> 
> 
> 
> *  Sorry for picking on Botswana and South Africa in particular.
> 

---------------------* My opinions are mine *---------------------------
 Calvin Browne calvin at UniForum.org.za c at lvin.co.za
               Office phone: 080 314 0077        +27 11 314-0077
               http://orange-tree.alt.za Mobile: +27 83 303-0663
               Call me for Linux/Internet consulting
------------------------------------------------------------------------