IPs for the elite? (Score 5, Informative)

It's true, you can't get portable IPs of your own anymore. The advent of CIDR and the segregation of netblocks were in an effort to reduce global routing tables.

Putting in 1-2Gb of memory in a router is still incredibly prohibitive. It just can't be done in the mainstream (common) routers.

You can still be multi-homed with netblocks from one ISP to be received by another. This happens this way in the US, and I'm sure it happens with APNIC and RIPE-issued blocks. You get the same effect, without all of the hassles of truly having your own blocks. At least we don't have the /19 barrier for advertising that used to be prevalent in larger ISPs. There is some give and take. The give on that is that the larger ISPs have gone to regional aggregates.

For instance, I don't want to have to pay for my addresses in the US now thanks to ARIN. (Don't get me started.) My ISP takes care of that. The justification process of getting addresses isn't fun, but it's a lot better than the Inquisition your provider has to go through. I'm not saying that economy is bad, but it's a fact of life with IPv4.

It's possible that controls will be loosened in an IPv6 world, but I don't think so. We've been down that path before. With tiny fragmented blocks of IPv6, we're creating a nightmare of routing tables the likes of which we've only imagined with IPv4. Aggregation is here to stay, and I beleive the days of the portable netblock are long gone.

Of course, if you can justify your need for your own blocks, you can go directly to your registry. If not, isn't it enough to have your networks SWIPed to you?

The days for "vanity" addresses are long gone. Maybe you should think up a clever .com domain name instead while you still can.