Wow, that was quick! Previously, I wrote about how IANA had just allocated the last block of IPv4 address space to the regional Internet registries (RIRs). At that time, APNIC had just requested two /8 blocks, which brought the remaining number of /8 blocks down to five. By mutual agreement of the RIRs, that triggered the automatic allocation of the remaining five /8 blocks, one to each RIR. That was in late January. Originally, most people thought that those addresses would last for a few months, at least through August or so. Last week, APNIC announced that they have allocated all those addresses (three /8s). They’re done. All further address allocation will be IPv6 addresses.
As I stated previously, this doesn’t mean that a company won’t be able to get an IPv4 address, particularly in regions where the RIRs still hold blocks of unallocated addresses. ISPs, for instance, will still be managing their own address blocks and ISP customers will still be able to connect to the IPv4 Internet.
But this is a shot across the bow of Internet users everywhere. IPv6 is on its way, and it’s picking up speed faster than most of us thought.
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