[arin-ppml] simple question about money

[Howard, W. Lee]

Your treasurer took the weekend off.  I will try to be clear,
even if I can't be concise.

IPv6 fees are set by the Board, with recommendations from the
Board's Finance Committee, and input from the membership.  We 
have tweaked and waived IPv6 fees over the past few years, but 
the overriding interests are 1) covering ARIN's costs, and 
2) providing predictable, understandable fee structures.  ARIN 
now has two years of operating expenses in reserve, against a 
time in the IPv6 future when registration fees become 
unpredictable.  Discussion more appropriately belongs on 
the member list, arin-discuss.


End users pay a one-time fee, based on the size of the assignment,
plus $100 annual maintenance fee.  This one maintenance fee can 
be applied to all IPv4, IPv6, and ASN registrations with ARIN.  
Most end user organizations receive assignments from their ISPs, 
not from ARIN.  End users do not receive membership benefits
with their assignment.  There is a membership option available
to end users:  an individual membership, see General Membership
#2 at http://www.arin.net/membership/index.html


ISPs pay a registration fee based on allocation size, plus a
corresponding annual renewal.  Most ISPs will probably get a
/32, which is set at $2,250 per year.  However, the Board does
not want fees to be a disincentive to adoption of IPv6, and 
has set up a couple of waivers:

Waiver #1: ISPs already paying an annual fee for for IPv4 won't
pay an initial fee for IPv6.

Waiver #2: Anyone paying an annual fee will pay only the 
higher fee of IPv4 or IPv6.  In most cases, that means your
current fees stay the same; $100/year for end users, or 
whatever your IPv4 renewal is for ISPs.

Waiver #3: ISPs who get an IPv6 allocation (and whose fees 
aren't completely waived under Waiver #2) will see a reduced
fee for the next few years.  So an ISP getting an IPv6 /32 
allocation this year will pay $225 now, $562.50 next year, 
$1125 in 2010, $1687.50 in 2011, and the full $2250 in 2012 
and beyond.  


As I said, over the past few years there have been other
waivers in place, and some of them have expired.  The Board
wants to encourage anyone who will continue needing new IP
address blocks to plan for IPv6 now.
(http://www.arin.net/announcements/2007/20070521.html)
We generally avoid using fees as incentives, but we also try
to avoid letting fees become disincentives to efficient
utilization and stable networking.


I worked with Financial Services and Member Services staff to 
try to make the language on the fee pages clear.  We have 
apparently not completely succeeded, and we'll keep working 
on it.


Disclaimers:  All of the fee information is on
http://www.arin.net/billing/fee_schedule.html
but I've paraphrased it here.  If my paraphrase disagrees
with anything on the web site, the web site is authoritative.
I am not a designated spokesperson for the Board, and I have
not confirmed my understanding of the reasons for past Board
actions with other Board members, or even checked past meeting
minutes.  My memory and understanding of Board actions and 
motives above is purely mine, and if I misremember, I'll
backpaddle aggressively.


Lee


> -----Original Message-----
> From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net 
> [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On Behalf Of Brian Reid
> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 8:56 AM
> To: ppml at arin.net
> Subject: [arin-ppml] simple question about money
> 
> Given how much IPv6 address space exists, why is it so damned 
> expensive? I decided it was time to turn up IPv6 connectivity 
> to my world, but when I went to look at prices for buying 
> even a small block of portable address space I realized I 
> couldn't afford it.
> 
> Given that this is a fictitious resource, and that there is 
> no intrinsic cost, ARIN should be charging about 1/100th of 
> their listed prices for it. Is there a legitimate reason for 
> the ultra-high prices? Is ARIN owned by Prada?
> 
> Brian Reid
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PPML
> You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to 
> the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML at arin.net).
> Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at:
> http://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml
> Please contact the ARIN Member Services Help Desk at 
> info at arin.net if you experience any issues.
>