Microsoft Buys 666,000 IP Addresses 264
RabidMonkey writes "Microsoft has managed to purchase 666,624 IP addresses from the bankrupt Canadian company Nortel for $7.5 million. This works out to $11.25/ip. An exact list of blocks isn't available yet. There has been a lot of discussion on NANOG about whether this allowed or not, and what the implications to the dwindling IPv4 pool may be. Is this the first of many such moves as IPv4 address space has run out? Will ARIN step in and block the sale/transfer? How long will such measures drag out the eventual necessity of IPv6?"
Re:Does this mean IPv4 addresses will sell like DN (Score:4, Insightful)
Does this mean that companies will start selling IP addresses for increasing amounts of money? should I buy a block of 100 as an investment now? A bit like buying up domain names?
Not bloody likely. Most likely Microsoft will dump what they don't need. With IPv6 around the corner it's like buying 666,000 ice cream cones on a hot Summer day - better use them up before they are no use anymore.
Re:Does this mean IPv4 addresses will sell like DN (Score:5, Insightful)
In order for IPv6 to be rolled out, I fear the FCC will need to get involved (as with HDTV). And that's just for the US.
I have no doubt the US will be among the last countries to get widespread IPv6 adoptation. Most major Swedish ISPs (Telia, etc) say they will start giving everyone both IPv4 and IPv6 in 2013, and drop IPv4 by 2015. They may delay, the IPv4 drop will depend on how the rest of the world are doing, but still: There will be no local market for IPv4 by 2014. Maby you can still sell address space to poor people like those in the US, who knows, all I'm saying is that the local market, and probably the whole EU market, for IPv4 will be dead soon.
Re:You got modded "Insightful" (Score:1, Insightful)
Here's my point if I can get past Slashdot's blocks...
There are MORE important "evils" than a goddamn software company.
People are being thrown out of their homes for NO REASON other then a clerical error or because they were suckered by the American Dream of getting rich - in real estate in this case.
Micrsoft is smal potatoes by today's standards.
Actually they wre always small potatoes but some dorks made their software the center of their lives. Good Grief! Get a fuckign grip! MS can have a 100% monopoly on software and it'll only affect 1% of my life ... BFD!
Re:Rent IP Addresses (Score:5, Insightful)
You're thinking backwards, every endpoint should ideally have a public IP, NAT breaks the end to end model and makes software much more difficult to write.