The final blocks of IPv4 address space look certain to be allocated tomorrow, after regional registry APNIC grabbed the last free floating blocks yesterday.
ICANN and the Number Resource Organization have called a press conference for tomorrow to “make a significant announcement,” leading to speculation that the last five of the 256 blocks of IPv4 spectrum will be allocated then.
Under a long-standing policy, one of these blocks – which each contain 16.7 million addresses - will be allocated to every regional internet registry.
ANIC, the registry for Asia Pacific, expects the final allocations to give it enough IPv4 addresses to maintain normal services for the next three to six months, after which it will dole out small allocations to ensure adequate IPv4 cover while web firms transition to IPv6.
Geoff Huston, chief scientist at APNIC, recently predicted the registry would run out of IPv4 addresses by mid-2011 if it continued to issue the addresses in the regular way, becoming the first local registry to exhaust its supply.