APNIC activated final /8 policy

This may be a good news or a bad news.

APNIC has activated the final /8 policy which states that all members, regardless of whether they are new operators or not, can have one and only one chance to get a /22 block (1024) IPv4 addresses. The IPv4 addresses are useless to absorb new customers, but rather they can enable new IPv6 service providers to implement transitional arrangements and systems to bride to the IPv4 Internet world. This implies that from now on, new service providers in the Asia Pacific will only be IPv6 network operators.

For God’s sake, I appeal to all well-established service providers not to apply for IPv4 addresses in the last /8 block, leaving these resources to new IPv6 service providers. After all, the well-established service providers have more than enough IPv4 addresses to use.

In the next APNIC Meeting, APNIC members will consider whether to reduce the /22 allocation to /24. I think 256 IPv4 addresses are good enough for a new IPv6 service providers to build some IPv4 systems plus transitional systems with redundancy.