RIPE and ARIN ?

[Daniel Karrenberg]

  > Jim Fleming <JimFleming at unety.net> writes:
  > 
  > Does RIPE compete with ARIN...?
  > 
  > @@@ http://www.ripe.net/lir/registries/PAGES/US.html
  > 
  > "Local Internet Registries offering service in UNITED STATES"
  > 
  > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Jim,

no the RIPE NCC does not compete with ARIN.  The mandate from our
constituency is concisely defined in document ripe-144 'RIPE NCC
Activities & Expenditure 1997' (http://www.ripe.net/docs/ripe-144.html).
I have referred both yourself and this list to this document before. 
The specific activity is 'R.1 Regional Internet Registry'
(http://www.ripe.net/docs/ripe-144.html#toc19):

  The RIPE NCC provides Internet registration services for Europe
  and surrounding areas; it acts as a Regional Internet Registry. 
  
  The overall goal of this activity is to provide fair, impartial and
  stable distribution of Internet numbers, especially address space in
  Europe and the surrounding areas.  The specific goals for address space
  are uniqueness of addresses, conservation of the remaining IPv4 address
  space, aggregation of routing information and registration of network
  management information. 

Our registry list contains "Local Internet Registries offering service
in UNITED STATES" because these LIRs also provide services in our area
and for that purpose act as local IRs in our area.  The list is
automagically generated from our LIR database which in turn is based on
the information provided by the LIRs themselves. 

Of 733 LIRs active in our region only 4 are listed as providing service
in the US and only one of those is based in the US.  This shows that in
this respect the regions as currently defined make a lot of sense. 

Daniel Karrenberg
General Manager
RIPE NCC