Brazil and Mexico are doing things a little bit differently as I noted before. They are allocating big chunks of address from LACNIC that they distribute in their countries. THe result is a three layered buffer of addresses (IANA -> LACNIC -> BRAZIL/MEXICO), not fair but that is how it is.

Brazil recently allocated an additional 2 million addresses from LACNIC. This allocation was a little bit surprising as they allocated 2 million addresses as early as in May this year. I suspect that a wireless operator that is building the next generation wireless network (LTE) allocated a big chunk of their old address space, forcing them to allocate more space from LACNIC. (every iphone, blackberry or other smartphone typically have a public IPv4 address)

The allocation is not affecting the overall IANA depletion date as RIPE is expected to allocate the last block from IANA. Right now only allocations made in the RIPE region will have any effect on the IANA depletion date. RIPE has not allocated any large blocks in several weeks now.

You might think I’m blogging about a soccer game…

Brazil and Mexico allocates IPv4 addresses very differently than the rest of the world. There are national registries in Brazil and Mexico that allocates addresses to the ISPs and other organizations within that country. Today Brazil filled up their pool with another 2 million addresses. Looking at the history, we can see that Mexico will follow soon, their last allocation (of 2 million addresses) was in November of 2007 and there are running on the fumes right now.

Wait a minute!!! So you are saying that there is an extra stash of addresses in Brazil and Mexico not counted for in the LACNIC pool? Yes.

So, basically they can justify an allocation from IANA even if they have enough addresses in the region? Yes.

And they will probably grab two x /2 in their final allocation from IANA to them, but if we counted the pool in Brazil and Mexico they would only be entitled one x/8? Yes.

That cannot be fair? No.