Re: "It's the end of the world as we know it" -- REM

["John Levine" <johnl () iecc com>]

In article <51794ABF.5040209 () mtcc com> you write:
> So here is the question I have: when we run out, is there *anything* that
> will reasonably allow an ISP to *not* deploy carrier grade NAT? Assuming
> that it's death for the ISP to just say no to the long tail of legacy v4-only
> sites?

Sure.  Enough money to buy the v4 space it needs.

Once people realize that there's no more free v4 space to be had, or
only little bits, that the market will develop and a lot of space will
appear for sale.  For example, there's an educational insitution near
Boston that's sitting on a /8.  If the price for a clean /12 turns out
to be $5M, which I don't think is implausible, it'll be mighty
tempting for them to renumber into one /12 and sell off the others for
a quick $75 million.

If you think I'm dreaming, look at what happened to Nortel's /8.

I entirely realize that the sound of people yelling that it's totally
unfair that other people got their space for free and now they have to
pay will be deafening.  Too bad.  Back in the early 90s I missed the
cutoff to get my own unjustified /24 by about six months, but I've
been able to deal with it.

R's,
John