Request for CLEW Input

[Lee Howard]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Howard C. Berkowitz wrote:

> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 09:39:35 -0500
> From: Howard C. Berkowitz <hcb at clark.net>
> To: richardj at arin.net
> Cc: clew at arin.net
> Subject: RE: Request for CLEW Input
> 
> >Hello Howard,
> >
> >ARIN has no control over the tactics that may be used by the sales
> >forces of some ISPs, but we do ensure requests submitted to ARIN for
> >IP address space are all reviewed in an equal manner.  If an ISP has
> >deployed a sales tactic like this it should show up during their
> >review for additional IP address space from ARIN.

If the ISP in question applies for additional space from ARIN.  I keep
hearing that a couple have old class A's they haven't used up.

> in the future; handle it." I've run across enterprises that have a 
> mentality of "if you have space in your allocation, give it to us NOW 
> if you want our business."  And we have sales people that will do 
> just that, because the next review period is later than the next 
> computation of their sales commissions.

If sales included an allocation clause in the contract, I would refer
it to my legal department.  We would have mutually exclusive contracts,
one with ARIN, and one with the customer.  Since the contract with ARIN
is critical to continuing to do business, that one wins, in my humble
and not legally-trained opinion.  I would think it's cheaper to settle
for breach of contract on one customer than jeopardize all future
business.

> The problem isn't with the ARIN staff.  Indeed, there is, I believe a 
> fair bit of unjustified hostility toward ARIN, when direct allocation 
> requests (or additional allocation requests) are denied due to 
> inadequate justification.

We get customers applying to us for large blocks of address space that
ARIN has already denied.  My experience is that we reinforce each other
when we say, "We'll be happy to work with you on this application, but
we require approval from ARIN before actually allocating space."  Our
consistency with ARIN legitimizes both us and ARIN.

If someone refuses to do business with us because we won't break the
rules for them, that's business I don't want anyway.

Lee