NEWDOM: Re: Funding IP Allocations

[Philip J. Nesser II]

Jon Lewis supposedly said:

> Cute...is there some reason a small chunk of this money can't be used to
> get ARIN started up and financially stable so registration fees can start
> out at a reasonable level rather than start high and eventually
> (supposedly) get lower?  Starting a new business guaranteed to at least
> break even in year 1 is a nice idea...I'd certainly like to do it...but
> it's usually unreasonable.  There's money here that can be used to
> subsidize ARIN until registration fees keep ARIN in the black.
> 

If you read the ARIN archives you will find that the original plan has NSI
providing seed money to ARIN to get them started.  Since people will only
have to pay fees as they first request blocks, there is no guarentee that
income will start to flow immediately.  There are also startup costs to be
considered which NSI will be funding.

The current fee structure is based on estimates of a two million dollar
yearly budget and using current allocation parameters.  And before people
jump in and start screaming about the budget amount.  It is currently an
estimate and a real one will be presented as one is prepared.  I will note
that a then very anti-ARIN list member tried to do an independent budget
and came up with about $2 million do to a quality job.  I don't know if he
is a supporter or not now, but I don't think he believes the budget is
unreasonable.  (I think it was Stephen Satchell (I am sorry if I massacred
the spelling of your name or got the wrong person)).

The infrastructure fund has been collected from DNS registration, as well
as current funding for IP allocations.  Since NSI has no responsibility to
continue funding this function after their agreement expires next year,
this subsidy is going to go away no matter how much it would be nice for
ISP's if it didn't.  It is just a cost of doing business.

--->  Phil