ARIN IPv4 Waitlist – 3 Years and Could Get Longer

October 30, 2023

A company joining ARIN’s IPv4 Waitlist today should expect to wait at least three years, John Sweeting, ARIN’s Chief Customer Officer reported this at ARIN 52 last week.

There are about 150 requests each quarter. But ARIN can only fulfill 30-50 requests. There are more than 700 companies on the list today.

ARIN asked the community to consider reducing the maximum allocation and maybe simplifying the policy. That could let more organizations get some IPv4 space and reduce waiting times. ARIN projects that reducing the maximum allocation from a /22 (1,024 addresses) to a /24 (256 IPv4 addresses) could reduce wait times by almost two-thirds.

In a separate discussion, Aaron Wendel, the Executive Director of the Kansas City Internet eXchange, noted a problem. He said that the BEAD program money is making peering a new buzzword. He described a proposal for 140 new Internet Exchange Points (IXP) in the US alone. This would create additional demand for addresses from ARIN’s address pool reserved for critical infrastructure.

Sweeting had previously confirmed that reserved pool replenishment takes precedence over the IPv4 Waitlist. This means the rapid creation of a hundred or more new IXPs could extend wait times for addresses through the IPv4 Waitlist.