

IPv4 addresses are becoming valuable - FSecurePal
http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2011/3/23/4778509.html

======
eli
I would imagine that a block is much more valuable than the sum of its parts,
so it's not quite right that a single IP is now worth $11.

~~~
dexen
Both for the ease of managing it (including setting up the routing) and
because you realistically need at least 4 addresses for every subnet (/30
bitmask) -- two used up for broadcast and gateway address.

~~~
jauer
RFC 3021 eliminates the subnet and broadcast addresses so /31 is usable. That
doubles your available space if you are primarily addressing links between
routers.

------
adulau
Nortel is selling IPv4 addresses? It's bit difficult to sell something that is
officially owned by the RIR (in this case: ARIN). Maybe Nortel (or the buyer)
should review the current policy of allocation and assignment from ARIN :
<https://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html>

~~~
pieter
It says in the article that their IP space is from a legacy block, which means
it's has never been given by IANA to any RIR, so ARIN can't make a claim on
it. Not sure how they'd get 666k addresses out of legacy space though :).

~~~
adulau
I'm not sure that legacy blocks can be really transferable with an exchange of
money.

<http://www.merit.edu/events/mmc/pdf/2008_Stovall_ARIN.pdf>

It seems as long as right holder is changed in the whoisdb... it seems fine.

~~~
jedsmith
They specifically allow it now, and I don't think this article has to do with
47/8. They probably cannot transfer 47/8. There are other, smaller allocations
in ARIN WHOIS; my officemate rattled them off out loud but I couldn't add in
my head fast enough. Dig through WHOIS, it probably adds up to 666k.

------
pieter
I wonder what Microsoft is going to do with the block. If you have a valid use
for addresses, you can still get them pretty much for free right now, though
that'll change in a few months.

Perhaps they're just hoarding them for the future already?

~~~
ch0wn
Microsoft got too many services to be sure about that, but Azure by itself
probably has a high demand of adresses.

------
zokier
Interesting that the sale was on 666 thousand addresses, while Nortel has
afaik a whole /8, 16.7M addresses. Where's the rest of them?

~~~
jedsmith
Since that's legacy from IANA, maybe they can't transfer it? My officemate
found a significant number of smaller allocations belonging to them.

------
tsvk
Is this really the case the IP blocks can be sold onwards?

I always thought that IP address allocations were assigned by IANA (through
the local regional registries like ARIN and RIPE), and as such were not any
property of the assignee to be sold. If an address range was not needed
anymore and the assignee surrendered control of them, they would return to the
free IP address pool at the regional registry.

~~~
wmf
You can now perform a "specified transfer" to another entity, and if some
money flows in the reverse direction, ARIN says they don't care. There's even
"Craigslist for IP addresses":
<https://www.arin.net/resources/request/stls.html>

------
ldng
Well, now we see why IPv6 is so slow to be implemented ... After food, oil,
here comes the ip speculation. Not viable in the long term but meanwhile some
will do a few bucks.

~~~
AndrewDucker
Actually, speculation should drive up prices, which will encourage people to
move to v6 faster...

~~~
uyhtghj
No - a secret cabal of big-IP companies will conspire to prevent it, like they
do with the electric car

------
aurora72
ISPs charge money for static IP. And now we see it's being bought and sold.
Isn't that a shame?

~~~
CountSessine
What will be a shame is when your ISP decides your routable address is worth
$11 to them and they sell it out from under you, leaving you behind an ISP-
level NAT.

