Draft Policy ARIN-2025-3

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Current Text (20 August 2026)

Problem Statement

Section 9 of the NRPM, Out of Region Use, requires organizations to use at least a /22 in the ARIN region before they can justify out of region use. This harms smaller organizations that have less than a /22 in region but do require some out of region use.

Policy Statement

Modify the following text in Section 9:

FROM:

IPv4: At least a /22 used in region.

TO:

IPv4: At least a /24 used in region.

Out-of-Region Usage Justification may not be used to receive IPv4 address space from the ARIN Waiting List (4.1.8), the Micro-allocation Pool (4.4), or the Dedicated IPv4 Block to Facilitate IPv6 Deployment (4.10).

Any organization already on the Waiting List at the time this policy is implemented will be exempted and shall remain eligible under the rules in effect at the time of its placement on the Waiting List.

RESULT:

Out of region use of ARIN registered resources are valid justification for additional number resources, provided that the applicant has a real and substantial connection with the ARIN region which applicant must prove (as described below) and is using the same type of resources (with a delegation lineage back to an ARIN allocation or assignment) within the ARIN service region as follows:

IPv4: At least a /24 used in region

Out-of-Region Usage Justification may not be used to receive IPv4 address space from the ARIN Waiting List (4.1.8), the Micro-allocation Pool (4.4), or the Dedicated IPv4 Block to Facilitate IPv6 Deployment (4.10).

Any organization already on the Waiting List at the time this policy is implemented will be exempted and shall remain eligible under the rules in effect at the time of its placement on the Waiting List.

IPv6: At least a /44 used in region ASN: At least one ASN present on one or more peering sessions and/or routers within the region

Comments

None

Timetable for Implementation

3 months

Staff and Legal Review (11 September 2026)

Staff Understanding:

NRPM Section 9, Out of Region Use, for IPv4 addresses requires that to justify out-of-region use, an organization must utilize at least a /22 within the ARIN region before additional resources may be approved for use outside the region. Section 9 applies to IPv4 address requests in conjunction with section 4 “IPv4”, section 8.3 “Transfers Between Specified Recipients Within the ARIN Region”, and section 8.4 “Inter-RIR Transfers to Specified Recipients”. This section does not apply to section 4.4 or 4.10 space, these sections have their own restrictions.

Draft Policy 2025-3 proposes reducing the in-region IPv4 utilization threshold from a /22 (or equivalent) to a single /24. Under this change, an organization would need to demonstrate use of only one /24 within the ARIN region to justify receiving additional ARIN-issued IPv4 resources for use outside the ARIN region. Neither the current policy text nor this draft policy establishes any maximum on the amount of IPv4 space that may be justified to be used outside the ARIN region, so long as at least a single /24 is utilized within the ARIN region, meaning a single in-region /24 could, in practice, unlock requests for substantially larger blocks for deployment entirely outside the ARIN region. 

Staff further understands that the policy would add explicit text providing that out-of-region usage may not be used as justification to receive IPv4 address space from the ARIN Waiting List (Section 4.1.8), the Micro-allocation Pool (Section 4.4), or the Dedicated IPv4 Block to Facilitate IPv6 Deployment (Section 4.10). Organizations that are already on the Waiting List when the policy is implemented would remain eligible under the rules in effect when they were placed on the Waiting List.

This draft policy does not modify the current Section 9 threshold for Autonomous System Number and IPv6 usage.

Implementable as Written?:

Yes

Impact on ARIN Registry Operations and Services:

None

Legal Review:

No material legal issues

Implementation Timeframe Estimate:

3 months

Implementation Requirements:

• Staff Training
• Updates to public documentation
• Updates to internal procedures and guidelines

Proposal/Draft Policy Text Assessed:

20 August 2026

History and Earlier Versions

Related Meetings