Asia-Pacific IPv4 Space Now Exhausted

Well that didn’t take very long.  A little over two months ago, the last bundles of addresses were handed out to each region.  Today APNIC announced it has reached the last block of IPv4 addresses in its available pool, and has activated its Final /8 policy.  That means it has begun rationing what it has left “to be used as essential connectivity with next-generation IPv6 addresses”.  According to APNIC Director Paul Wilson:

Considering the ongoing demand for IP addresses, this date effectively represents IPv4 exhaustion for many of the current operators in the Asia Pacific region. From this day onwards, IPv6 is mandatory for building new Internet networks and services.

Mandatory – a word nobody likes much when it applies to something they’ve been avoiding.  The other regions will surely soon have to follow suit, as they also start to pick through the dregs at the bottom of their own IPv4 barrels.

We will soon see just how ready the world is for the transition to IPv6.  We will also soon see just how much an IPv4 address is worth to those who are not ready.  Of course, we already saw MicroSoft fire the first volley on that front.

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Categories: Internet Backbones