ACSP Consultation 2021.3: ARIN Fees

Consultation Tracking Information

  • Requested By: Staff
  • Status: Closed
  • Comments Opened: Linked to Discussion Archives: 09 April 2021
  • Comments Closed: 10 May 2021
  • Suggestion Number: n/a

Consultation Description

ARIN’s Fee Schedule has always been based on the principle of equitable cost recovery across our community through a stable and consistent fee schedule. In general, this means that ARIN has avoided making routine changes to the Fee Schedule (for example, making annual readjustments for changing costs) and instead has only made changes when deemed necessary.

We are consulting with the community regarding changes to the ARIN Fee Schedule that are intended for implementation in January of 2022. These changes are:

  • Transitioning End Users from annual per-resource maintenance fees to the RSP (Registration Services Plan) Fee Schedule
  • Transitioning Legacy resource holders from annual per-resource maintenance fees to the RSP Fee Schedule while maintaining the annual cap of total maintenance fees (which will increase $25 per year)
  • Providing a temporary IPv6 fee waiver for organizations in the 3X-Small category that desire a larger address block
  • Implementing a $100 fee for OrgCreate and OrgRecovery transactions
  • Increasing the transfer processing fee to $500

As the use of the ARIN registry continues to grow, we continue to invest in our services in order to meet the changing needs. One significant change we have seen with the runout of IPv4 is the maturity of the transfer market, a development which has enabled better overall utilization of the fixed IPv4 address space and led to reutilization of IPv4 resource assignments to meet the growing needs of organizations of all types. ARIN provides equivalent services to end users and ISP customers, but it has had two very distinct fee schedules due to historical difference in use. For example, our investment in the ARIN Internet Routing Registry (IRR), Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) and DNSSEC services improve network security across the Internet and are being used by all types of ARIN customers. However, in many cases, organizations receiving similar services from ARIN are paying significantly different fees today – for example, two hosting companies each with the same 65,000 IPv4 addresses (/16) may find that one is paying more than 25 times as much as the other despite receiving the same services from ARIN.

In 2022, ARIN will transition all customers to the RSP fee schedule based on total IPv4 and IPv6 resources held. This change will ensure costs are distributed in an equitable manner by eliminating the current fee differentiation between ISP and end user organizations.

The proposed fee change also brings those with resources issued before the formation of ARIN (legacy resource holders) into the new Fee Schedule, thus providing for uniform treatment of all ARIN customers. Legacy resource holders have enjoyed a cap on total registry maintenance fees, and this continues to be applied under the new Fee Schedule, although it is also made clear that the total cap will increase $25 per year, thus recognizing the contribution of the earliest Internet pioneers while enabling a long-term transition to equitable fees for all.

In addition, it has been recognized that the increased numbers of transfers and related organizational record changes take significant ARIN resources, and could result in extended processing times without appropriate resources. This is addressed with fee changes in those specific transaction types to allow ARIN to continue to continue to provide timely services with equitable cost recovery.

Finally, in response to a suggestion from the community, the ARIN Board of Trustees proposes a temporary waiver with regard to fees applicable to those requesting very small IPv6 blocks in order to avoid a fee category change, and the new Fee Schedule includes a specific waiver to address this situation.

These changes have the added benefit of allowing ARIN to maintain robust and redundant operational infrastructures, so that we can guarantee our services are online and accessible at all times. It will also allow ARIN to continue to develop and provide the high-quality services demanded by our customers and the Internet community, including our routing security services which are increasingly crucial to all of our customers.

Please view the proposed 2022 Fee Schedule at:

https://www.arin.net/resources/fees/fee_schedule/2022_fee_schedule/

This consultation will remain open for 30 days, after which a summary will be provided to the Board of Trustees for their consideration.

Please provide comments to arin-consult@arin.net. You can subscribe to this mailing list at: http://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-consult.

Discussion on arin-consult@arin.net will close on 10 May.

ARIN Actions

ARIN thanks those who provided valuable feedback during the Consultation on ARIN Fees. The feedback from the community will be provided to the Board for their consideration. Overall, input from the community was supportive of work toward harmonizing fees to achieve equitable cost recovery including:

  • Increasing the Transfer Fees to $500
  • Adding transaction fees for OrgCreate and OrgRecovery
  • The need for cost-recovery necessary to support the continued development and deployment of Internet routing security services (i.e., RPKI and authenticated IRR)
  • Harmonizing fees for all customers as fast as reasonably may be accomplished
  • Simplifying the process of working with ARIN via a single uniform fee schedule

Several interesting points were raised in the discussion, and we did our best to address informational questions as they occurred during the consultation. We urge customers to review this dialog in the consultation mailing list archives.

The input provided by the community is a vital part of our planning processes at ARIN, and after reviewing responses to the consultation we will recommend that the Board adopt the proposed 2022 Fee Schedule with a minor adjustment. Due to concerns that a charge of $100 for OrgCreate transactions might create a deterrent to update reassignment data, we plan to reduce the fee for OrgCreate to $50. While this will not allow us to achieve our goal of full cost recovery for these transactions, we feel it achieves an appropriate balance between consideration for the services and encouraging maintenance of accurate registry data.

Another major point raised during the consultation was regarding the need for more equitable treatment of legacy resource holders – in particular whether there could be a faster transition from capped fees to the standard fee schedule. We did weigh several options suggested by the community, but we intend to proceed as planned (i.e., increasing the cap on total annual registry maintenance fees for legacy resource holders by $25 per year.) While this cap is not required contractually for all legacy resource holders, we will apply it uniformly in order to provide equitable fees of similarly situated organizations.

To help customers understand the impact of the Fee Schedule changes we recently updated the ARIN Fee Calculator, available through ARIN Online, to display both the current estimated fees and estimated fees under the proposed 2022 fee schedule. Customers are encouraged use this tool to determine the impact of the fee schedule harmonization on their organizations.

This Fee Harmonization was developed with the express goal of ensuring costs are distributed in an equitable manner by eliminating the current fee differentiation between ISP and end user organizations. These changes will allow ARIN to continue to develop and provide the high-quality services demanded by our customers and the Internet community, including our routing security services which are increasingly crucial to all our customers.

On behalf of ARIN, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the discussion – your efforts in this and other consultations help keep us aligned with the needs and expectations of the ARIN community.

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