[ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:ppml-bounces at arin.net]On Behalf Of
>Luke S. Crawford
>Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 12:56 PM
>To: Kevin Kargel
>Cc: ppml at arin.net
>Subject: Re: [ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown
>
>
>
>a solution that would avoid homesteading could  be to set up a parabolic
>increase in price.   Say, double the price of IPv4 allocations every 6
>months.   I imagine my provider would start charging me immediately for
>my [currently free] ip addresses.  Of course, I would pass those costs on
>to my customers, and maybe even offer free IPv6 addresses, such that a
>customer could get a significant discount by using a IPv6-only VPS.  I
>imagine those would sell poorly at first, but after a year or two of
>price increases, IPv6 with tunnels to the IPv4 world would start to look
>pretty good.

The problem with this is that any of your competitors who have large
blocks of unused space, are simply going to field those cheaper addresses
and put you out of business.  Or if they are a lot bigger than you they are
going to subsidize the newer more expensive IP numbers they get, and still
undercut you.  Then once your bankrupt, they will jack prices up.  This
is what the cable companies did to a lot of smaller DSL providers.

If the Internet turns into a place where only the enormous deep pockets
can play, it will kill all the innovation on it and eventually the customers
will not be attracted to anything on it and will leave.  Is that what you
want?  It isn't what I want.

Ted