David, ISPs in Asia, the Pacific Rim, Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa pay similar fees for allocation services from APNIC or RIPE-NCC and most of these regions are growing faster than the US. Further, small businesses should *NOT* be obtaining addresses from a regional registry directly -- they should be obtaining them from their provider. Regards, -drc ---------
While I admit it is not completely clear reading the proposal outlined on the web page at http://rs.internic.net/arin, charging $2,500 for a /24 will *kill* the small business market, and the ISPs that exist to service that market. Most of the associations and small businesses we deal with choke when thay have to pay $750 for a router to handle their dedicated Internet connection. Added to the fact that the LECs want to charge per minute charges for POTS lines used for dedicated dial-up, a $2,500 IP address charge will guarantee that the small business portion of the market will disappear. We all depend on the net for a living folks -- I don't think we should consider any proposal that would have a negative effect on our own industry.
Dave Stoddard US Net Incorporated 301-572-5926 dgs@us.net