Some Thoughts on the Open Internet

I’m sure we’ve all heard about “the Open Internet.” The expression builds upon a rich pedigree of term “open” in various contexts. For example, “open government” is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective…


A Second Look at APNIC and IPv4 Address Exhaustion

It has been said often enough that its easy to make predictions; the tough part is getting them right! And in trying to predict the manner that APNIC will exhaust its remaining supply of IPv4 addresses I’m pretty sure that I did not get it right in the most recent…


Address Transfers in APNIC

In 2010 the Asia Pacific Regional Address Policy community adopted a policy that permitted address holders in the region to transfer address registration records, enabling an aftermarket in IPv4 addresses to operate with the support of the APNIC registry function. While APNIC was still able to allocate addresses to meet…


IPv4 Address Exhaustion in APNIC

It has been over 4 years since APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific Region handed out its last “general use” allocation of IPv4 addresses. Since April 2011 APNIC has been restricted to handing out addresses from a “last chance” address pool, and has limited the amount of…


The Internet of Stupid Things

In those circles where Internet prognostications abound and policy makers flock to hear grand visions of the future, we often hear about the boundless future represented by “The Internet of Things”. This phrase encompasses some decades of the computing industry’s transition from computers as esoteric piece of engineering affordable only…


The Mobile Internet

It has been observed that the most profound technologies are those that disappear


NANOG 63: The FCC and the Open Internet

The Proposed FCC order on the regulation framework for ISPs in the US will be voted on by the FCC’s Commissioners on Feb 26. The proposal is rumoured to be one that pulls in ISPs into the common carrier provisions of the US Telecommunications Act, with just, reasonable and non-discriminatory…


NANOG 63: Update on the IANA Transition

ARIN’s John Curran referenced the 14 March 2014 announcement that the USG planed to transition oversight of the IANA functions contract to the global multistakeholder community. He references the NTIA’s conditions, namely supporting the multistakeholder model, security and stability and robustness. It explicitly states that it would not accept a…


Decision Time for the Open Internet

On February 26 of this year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States will vote on a proposed new ruling on the issue of “Network Neutrality” in the United States, bringing into force a new round of measures that are intended to prevent certain access providers from deliberately…


Addressing 2014

Time for another annual roundup from the world of IP addresses. What happened in 2014 and what is likely to happen in 2015? This is an update to the reports prepared at the same time in previous years, so lets see what has changed in the past 12 months in…