IPv4 Market pioneers Marc Lindsey and Janine Goodman to speak at Interop ITX 2018There is no longer a free pool of IPv4 addresses available for distribution across most regions of the world. The new IP protocol, IPv6, is slowly being adopted but not fast enough to satisfy the growth needs of most network operators. It is estimated that there will be at least a 5-6 year gap between IPv4 free pool exhaustion and mature IPv6 adoption. To bridge this gap, an active private market for IPv4 addresses has emerged to allow companies with excess IPv4 numbers to sell them to those in need.

The IPv4 marketplace, however, is not well understood. There are no established standards of conduct, little transparency and even less accountability. Many participants don’t fully understand what legal rights are being bought and sold, participants rely on registry data that is not always accurate, different geographic regions apply different transfer criteria and there is no assurance that third parties who may be offering their services and advice actually understand what they are doing since there are no meaningful barriers to entry to providing brokerage services, and no self-regulatory body that enforces minimal qualifications, experience or codes of conduct. Market participants, however, can take important steps to minimize risks and increase the likelihood of executing successful transactions.

In this session, we will provide a framework for understanding the current market, provide advice on how to participate in the market and navigate the various Internet registry policies, and pass on contracting tips—from the optimal contract structure depending on the needs of the buyer and seller, to critical clauses and remedies that you want in your contract in case a deal goes wrong.

Learn how to navigate the current market, including tips on Internet registry policies and contracting best practices in this post-free pool world. Interop ITX is an independent education conference for the IT community and will be held at the Mirage in Las Vegas this year, April 30 – May 4.