DomainTools Blog

I just read the IPV4 address report. The bad news is we are running out of IP addresses. The report predicts that by August 20th 2012 there will be no more free IP addresses to assign to anyone. Internet Service Providers that want IP addresses currently must go to an ICANN approved address group and request new IP addresses. But in the future, we could have to go through IP address brokers that accumulate spectrum and sell it off in a grey market. Could organizations buy failing ISPs for their spectrum rather then the actual customer base. It is certain we will run out of non-allocated addresses by 2012. I would like to see governments actually go on the record and mandate all equipment be IPV6 compatible.

However if ICANN seizes unused address space from squatters and recycles it, this will give the world enough address space until 2026. But the question is how will ICANN seize used IP addresses? There is no proposed seizer policy right now, but when one gets formed, expect companies to start utilizing that vacant space so they can claim it is in use. I don’t see anyone wanting to give back address space. It will be hard to take back address space.

Even if ICANN is able to seize all unused spectrum, we still run out of space in 2026. The only recourse is if eveyone in the world is fully compliant to IPV6. I just don’t see the world changing that fast - systems are put into place and they need to be backwards compatible. It is critical to large organizations that they be on the old address space. I expect that address space is going to be a large issue in the next few years!