IP Lease Regulations in LACNIC: What You Need to Know

Introduction

LACNIC (Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre) plays a vital role in managing and allocating Internet resources within its region. This includes the distribution of IP addresses, which are essential for internet connectivity. However, there has been some ambiguity regarding the leasing of IP addresses in LACNIC’s policies. This article aims to clarify the current stance on IP leasing in LACNIC and the proposed changes to address this issue.

Current Policies

LACNIC’s current policies, as outlined in their documentation, do not explicitly consider IP address leasing acceptable unless those addresses are an integral part of a connectivity service. In other words, IP address leasing is not a valid justification for address allocation if the purpose does not involve connecting clients of a Local Internet Registry (LIR) or Internet Service Provider (ISP).

This is regulated by 0.9. clause of LACNIC policies:

To assign means to delegate address space to an end user, to be exclusively used within the infrastructure operated by said end user, as well as for interconnection purposes. The assigned address space must only be used by the original recipient of the assignment, as well as for third-party devices provided they are operating within said infrastructure. Therefore, sub-assignments to third parties outside said infrastructure (for example, the use of end-user assignments for ISPs or similar clients) and providing addresses to third parties in data centers (and others) are not allowed.

Proposed Policy Changes

Currently, there’s a new Policy Proposal in discussion aimed to make the IP-lease explicitly prohibited.

While the existing policy implies the prohibition of IP leasing, the authors of policy consider it is essential to have clear and explicit language in the policies to avoid any potential misinterpretation. The proposal aims to emphasize that IP addresses should not be leased „per se“ but only as part of a direct connectivity service.

Conclusion

Given the above, we don’t recommend to rent out IP-resources allocated by LACNIC, unless such lease follows the LACNIC policy terms . This means that you’re eligible to lease it out if the purpose of use remains same as it was justified to obtain the IPv4 block, and you provide IP lease service as an integral part of a connectivity service

Voldeta will monitorthe updates in the LACNIC policies for the internet community and stakeholders to stay informed about such policy discussions and changes within regional registries like LACNIC, as they have a significant impact on the allocation and management of internet resources.