How costs will trickle down (if ARIN goes through)

[David Schwartz]

        Sprint, for all intents and purposes, already does operate an IP
registry. They receive IP allocations from Internic and then redistribute
them to their customers. What more do they need?

        The authority is already there for them (and other ISPs) to
allocate IPs to non-customers, including those who don't even have an
Internet connection. Someone (David Conrad?) recently cited that RFC on
this list.

        If anything, this pricing plan will increase the incentive for
ISPs to act more like registries -- after all, it will now be more
expensive for people to get their IPs 'direct'. So I think what you are
asking for is already there.

        David Schwartz

On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, Jim Fleming wrote:

> In my opinion, Sprint is large enough to operate their
> own "registry". They could easily handle a /8.
>
> Most ISPs are not large enough or experienced enough
> to operate an IP Address Registry. Those ISPs will likely
> have to band together under an ARIN-like organization.