Microsoft buys a large batch of IPv4 addresses to a price equal to $11.00 per address.
Microsoft recently agreed to pay $ 7.5 million dollars for a batch consisting of 624 IPv4 addresses. The deal applies addresses from the bankrupt Canadian operator Nortel. The deal is done through a bankruptcy court in Delaware and is not yet fully understood.
If the deal goes through, so it means that Microsoft will pay $ 11.25 per address. The price of IPv4 addresses, which are slowly running out, then shoot through the roof. Based on the proposed price, the total value of all remaining IPv4 addresses remain on the $ 48 billion, according to IDG News.
Recently announced by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization has done away with the last IPv4 address. The stores are still with regional registration authorities are also about to end.
According to ICANN the remaining addresses will go to organizations that have a strong and immediate need. The issue is wheter or not Microsoft’s purchase is of character. The deal has led to speculation that Microsoft bought the addresses to be able to resell them.
An analysts wondering on a blog how Microsoft could buy the holding, although there are rules stating that the addresses have not been used by Nortel would be submitted to a common pool.
As a result of the shortage of IPv4 addresses, the American registration authority Arin, American Registry for Internet Numbers tightened the rules for distribution. Organizations claiming the new addresses must anticipate their needs in the three-month basis, from the previous one tolvmånadesårsperiod.
Arina CEO, John Curran, suggests that the organization may explain their rules to court to give a clarification to the application.
“Arina enforces existing rules and is prepared to explain them in a number of court rooms”, Curran said in a blog, but if he really actually is behind the statement has not been verified.
Nearly 470 000 of the addresses are available immediately for Microsoft, when the deal is completed. The rest are placed in line with Nortel’s bankruptcy proceeding, according to the documents filed with the court. Microsoft has not commented on the deal.
