[arin-ppml] Question for ARIN staff..

[Heather Schiller]

Is Ben Edelman still on the ARIN payroll or still consulting for ARIN? 
Is Ben Edelman speaking on behalf of ARIN or representing ARIN's point 
of view in this article?


http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5968.html

A: A market-based approach offers a real benefit to those who still need 
more IPv4 addresses after ordinary supplies run out. Rather than being 
told that no more IPv4 space is available, on any terms or at any price, 
these networks could offer payments to get v4 space from others. It's 
unlikely that other networks would return their space for free—why would 
they? But if the price is right, they may be willing to transfer the 
space to someone who needs it more.

So the core benefit is allocative efficiency, moving scarce resources to 
those who need them most.

But there are other benefits, too. By putting a positive price on IPv4 
space, a market mechanism would remind current v4 users that their v4 
space is valuable, and that they might want to try to vacate it, to the 
extent they can, perhaps by moving to IPv6. A market basically tells 
networks: "We will pay you to use v6 instead." That's a transition 
incentive quite different from anything we've seen to date. That's a 
transition incentive that just might work.


Q: Who will make this decision? Will governments play a role?

A: IP addresses are given out by five Regional Internet Registries 
(RIRs). In North America, our RIR is the American Registry for Internet 
Numbers (ARIN). RIRs are private nonprofits, not a government agency, 
and their powers are appropriately limited. But RIRs are in a position 
to allow paid transfers, if they conclude that such transfers are in the 
Internet's best interests.

-- 
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  Heather Schiller	Verizon Business
  Customer Security	1.800.900.0241
  IP Address Management	help4u at verizonbusiness.com
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