[address-policy-wg] ISPs selling IP address space

Hi,

On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 12:45:50PM +0200, Pekka Savola wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, Gert Doering wrote:
> >Actually we decided on one of the last RIPE meetings to obsolete the
> >"charging by local IRs" document, because the majority seemed to believe
> >that "the market will rule this" - if one ISP charges too much, people
> >will go and find an alternative.
> 
> Sigh.  And I thought IP addresses were a global resource, with a bit 
> nobler motivations and goals to recommend or mandate that the ISPs 
> don't screw their customers on something they get for free.  Live and 
> learn..

I don't see this as negative as you seem to do.

There's the optimistic view: there are *so many* ISPs on the market that
an ISP that screws its customers will just see them wander away to
other ISPs - and there are enough that don't charge by-address (Charging
for the initial setup has never been prohibited anyway).

The pragmatic/pessimistic view is "what shall RIPE do about it anyway?" -
there are enough ISPs out there that don't bother with any sort of RIPE
documentation, and can get away with it because they have a /14 and don't
expect ever to need more address space - there is hardly any pressure
RIPE can apply here, and there isn't enough peer pressure out there
to have effect.

[..]
> If the end users had realistic possibilities to obtain routable PI, 
> there would not be such a concern, because the ISPs could not create a 
> lock-in situation (or force to renumber or use NAT).. But now this 
> seems like a problem.

Well - let's be somewhat realistic here.  If you get a leased line to
your ISP, it will usually cost a hefty setup fee as well, because there's
effort involved in digging up the street.  Will you also call that a 
"vendor lock-in"?

Gert Doering
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