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

[Gert Doering <]

Hi,

On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 10:28:55AM +0200, Pekka Savola wrote:
> Let's assume an organization would qualify for e.g., /25 address 
> allocation.  When obtaining Internet connectivity, the ISP gives two
> offers, for example:
>  - 100 EUR/mo for a /27
>  - 200 EUR/mo for a /25
> (otherwise the terms are same, and the technical implementation is 
> the same.)
> 
> I recall this is not allowed.  Are there any recourses in this kind 
> situations?  Threaten the ISP with LIR audit? ;-)

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.

Personally, I can see a reason why (getting) a /25 might be more expensive 
than a /27.  Usually customers are pretty sloppy in documenting their
need - and figuring out why they need 16...32 IPs is usually less time-
consuming than figuring out why they need 64...128 IPs ("do they have
subnets? virtual hosting with SSL? is it because the 'need to have it 
immediately!  *stomp foot*'?) - so it's sort of "charging by effort",
not "charging by amount of address space".

Of course it's hard to see the underlying rationale in a specific
ISP's offer from the outside.

(OTOH, the whole industry is so NAT-damaged that more and more ISPs 
have serious issues understanding the concept of "assigning a subnet of 
reasonable size" to end-users.  *sigh*.  Time for IPv6.  Really.)

Gert Doering
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