IANA IPv4 pool exhausted

 February 4, 2011

On the first of February, APNIC, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, announced that the last two IPv4 class A (/8) have been assigned. With this assignment, there are no more IPV4 classes /8 available from IANA. This does not mean that there are no IPv4 available, but that from now on, only smaller classes will be assignable. Also, the RIR still has some /8 classes available.

Many people see this as a clear sign that the move to IPv6 is imminent. I do not share this optimism. For many years companies will continue freeing IPv4 classes by implementing NATs and will sell those classes to newer companies that will require IPv4s. Over time the average price per address will increase, squeezing out of the market the small players. We will see a move to IPv6 at a certain point, but I doubt it will happen before 10 or 20 years.