LEWISTON, NY–(Marketwired – Jan 29, 2014) – After four years in the internet protocol (IP) address transfer business, Sandra Brown, President of IPv4 Market Group, has seen a lot of changes in the evolving IPv4 Marketplace. In fact, since the company’s inception in May 2011, she and her team have urged the industry toward no needs justification on IPv4 transfers, and it seems that the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia, is poised to implement this policy in 2014 with IPv4 Market Group’s support.
As for what else is ahead in 2014, “IPv4 Market Group does not predict any upward movement in price in the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) or the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) until ARIN runs out of free IP addresses,” said Brown. “ARIN will run out as early as Q4 of 2014, but this could change depending on whether it distributes /12 IP blocks to its large customers.” Coincidentally, Brown predicts the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC) will run out of its free pool at about the same time as ARIN.
For Europe, IPv4 Market Group predicts that RIPE prices should remain stable through at least the first half of 2014 as supply meets demand. “IP prices will probably start to rise toward the end of 2014, as supplies start to tighten,” said Brown.
Overall in 2013, Brown and team found that IPv4 prices fell slightly, although they are still higher in the RIPE region than either the APNIC or ARIN regions. Brown believes this is due to three reasons: First, RIPE is a closed marketplace where the number of IPv4 transfer is only those within the region. Secondly, the economies of many countries in Asia cannot support the higher asking prices and many companies find that the purchase of IPs is beyond their means. Thirdly, ARIN continues to give out IPs from its free pool. As long as these three factors continue, IPv4 Market Group expects these relative price trends to continue.
Specifically, /16 prices in the RIPE region started at slightly more than $10.00 USD per IP in the early months of 2013. There was a slight increase in price in September due to a small premium for legacy IPs. In the APNIC region, /16 prices also started out at $10 USD per IP, but dropped slightly in September and began trending back up in December.
“Several factors affected price in 2013, and supply versus demand was certainly a key macro factor,” said Brown. The micro factors which influenced price per IP include aggressive buyer closing dates, seller urgency to monetize, benefit of being a repeat seller or buyer for process efficiency, and buyer willingness to accept blacklisted/blocked IPs from seller.
Companies also preferred to buy IPv4 addresses in-region last year. Brown noted, “For example, if given a choice, most Asia based companies will pay a small premium to buy APNIC IPs, in part to avoid the extra process and complication created by inter-regional transfers with ARIN, and in part because they prefer Asian contract law, and some North American firms will not accept this.”
In 2013, smaller blocks also sold at higher prices. For example, consider the “/20 sales” chart to the right showing the five sales of /20s that IPv4 Market Group completed in the RIPE region recently. The $5.00 USD per IP premium over a /16 is to compensate for the fact that the cost and effort to sell a /20 IP is equivalent to the cost and effort to sell a /16 IP. Blocks in between a /16 and /20 in size are generally priced anywhere between $10 and $15 USD.
About IPv4 Market Group: IPv4 Market Group is a global leader in IPv4 transfers with over 70 transactions completed or in progress. The firm was founded in May of 2011. Its President is Sandra Brown, the Nortel Director behind the first ever IPV4 transfer, a $7.5 Million sale of 660,000 IPv4 addresses to Microsoft. She and her business partner, Executive Vice President of Business Development, Jeff Mehlenbacher, have a very long and credible IPv4 transaction history in the ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC regions. They will bring their considerable IPv4 expertise to bear for any firm interested in buying or selling IPs. To learn more, visit http://ipv4marketgroup.com or call 905-880-5906.
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