RE: [Wg-apnic-fees] Compare RIRs

[Bill Woodcock <woody@pch.net>]

To introduce myself to the list and the conversation, my name is Bill 
Woodcock, and I'm the research director of Packet Clearing House, which is 
a not-for-profit research agency with offices in San Francisco, London, 
and Kathmandu, and operations in about seventy countries, in all five RIR 
regions.  We are a member of APNIC, ARIN, AfriNIC, and LACNIC.  RIPE does 
not have a "membership" structure, so we're not a RIPE member.  I'm also 
on the ARIN board of directors.

    > I think all RIRs are doing almost same activity.
    > so, there is no large difference between RIRs.

The area of overlap between the RIRs lie in IP address and ASN 
registration, and twice-annual meetings.  In addition to those basic 
functions...

- APNIC provides multi-lingual support, through a system of regional 
specialists; it provides frequent regional trainings throughout the 
region; it sponsors research into resource allocation and depletion; and 
it sponsors open-source software tools development.  

- RIPE provides occasional regional trainings; and sponsors open-source 
software tools development.

- LACNIC provides occasional regional trainings; and sponsors other 
associated networking conferences and events.

- AfriNIC provides occasional regional trainings; provides multi-lingual 
support; and sponsors open-source software tools development.

- ARIN has occasionally sponsored open-source software tools development.

Please forgive me if I've made any oversights or omissions.

    > Why does ONLY APNIC plan to increase fee?
    
As you can see, each RIR provides a fairly different set of services, 
surrounding their core function, at the request of their membership.  
These services cost very different amounts, not only because of what they 
are, but because of where they're provided, in what languages, how 
frequently, to how large a population, how well, and what local costs are 
associated with making them possible.  

So while RIPE and ARIN are providing a very small set of services to a 
large-but-relatively static population, APNIC is providing a large set of 
services to a large-and-rapidly-growing population.  

Also, APNIC started out with very low fees, whereas RIPE and to a lesser 
degree ARIN, started out with fairly high fees.

So RIPE and ARIN fees have been dropping from high to medium, and APNIC 
fees may go up from low to medium.

But I don't think this constitutes a problem.

    > I think APNIC and members should communicate more often.

Agreed.

                                -Bill