Today, Southgate reported:
The president of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has announced they received $108 million from Amazon for 4 million amateur radio TCP/IP addresses
Since its allocation to Amateur Radio in the mid-1980’s, Internet network 44 (44.0.0.0/8), known as the AMPRNet™, has been used by amateur radio operators to conduct scientific research and to experiment with digital communications over radio with a goal of advancing the state of the art of Amateur Radio networking, and to educate amateur radio operators in these techniques.
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a non-profit California corporation formed to further these goals.
In mid-2019 a block (44.192.0.0/10) of approximately four million AMPRNet™ IP addresses, out of the 16 million available, was sold to Amazon by ARDC but it is only now that the sale price has been released. Amazon paid $27 for each IPv4 address.
In a post to the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) ARDC President Phil Karn KA9Q said:
“The NDA with Amazon that covered the sale of our surplus IP addresses required us to keep the exact dollar amounts private until we were legally required to disclose them in our annual tax filings, audit and financial reports. These have just been made public and are available online through the California Attorney General’s website (since ARDC is incorporated in California). You can also get some background information through our (independently written) Wikipedia article.
The bottom line is that the sale netted us about US $108M, and we expect to grant at least US $5 million *per year* on an ongoing basis, depending on how our investments perform, to a wide variety of Internet and amateur radio digital communication projects. To date we have made about $2.5 million in grants, so we’re only getting started.”
Phil’s AMSAT-BB post can be seen at
https://www.amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2020-October/080028.htmlRead the 2019 sale announcement on the AMPR site at
https://www.ampr.org/amprnet/
What do you all think? Did ham radio get its money’s worth?
Tregonsee says
The people at ARDC are about the best you could wish for. However, it is a fairly small group with very specific interests. I worry that in addition to the good done, we may see a classic example of the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. It may skew amateur radio in directions which may not be as balances as should be desired. Again, this is NOT a criticism of the individual involved, some whom I have known for decades. Just a caution about the situation.
Jeff, KE9V says
We had no viable use for all those IP addresses so I think it was wise to sell them. And of all the hams in the US, I’d say Phil Karn is the most trustworthy guardian and distributor of those funds. So bravo!
73, Jeff KE9V
Goody K3NG says
I’m not sure how to feel about this. The fact we have no viable use for the IP addresses is sad. It speaks volumes about how amateur radio missed the boat in regards to networking the last three decades. That being said, I don’t think it was a bad idea selling the IP addresses, though it sure feels icky. I hope the sale proceeds get put to good use. It would be ironic if the money funded an amateur radio networking technology that becomes outrageously popular and needs IP addresses.
Dan KB6NU says
I also hope the money gets put to good use. My good buddy, KE9V, thinks that KA9Q is trustworthy, so I’ll go along with him on that.
Chuck K4RGN says
The former telecom products company Nortel had a Class A address space of its own (47.x.x.x). When the company went bankrupt, Microsoft purchased a portion of Nortel’s address space at a price of $11.25 per address. That was in 2011.
I agree it’s unfortunate that the ham radio community couldn’t figure out how to use the block of addresses. But given that we didn’t, monetizing the asset makes sense.
Dan KB6NU says
That being the case, it looks like the ARDC got a pretty good deal. Interesting note about Nortel. I used to work for Northern Telecom here in Ann Arbor in the early 1990s.
Steve Kellam says
They still have 12 million addresses. That’s a lot. More than they could likely every use. As IPV6 continues to take hold and become more standard, the value of IPV4 addresses will likely go down. Best to sell now while they have good value.
Steve~W8SFC says
Since 3/4 of the IP address spaces are still controlled by an amateur radio interest group, (ARDC), and the proceeds of the sale are being administered in the manner noted. All considered I think they did an admirable job of looking after the resource and managing it. It seems to me that this was a well thought out and executed deal that will benefit amateur radio for some time to come. We have been well served by this, in my opinion.
Don Rhodes says
The time table for when IPv4 addresses will start to fall in price is something no one knows. $27/per IP is was likely due to them being a contiguous block, I’d take all the Bezos bucks I can.
The plans they have laid out for how the money will be used is very encouraging. The long term management of the endowment is the biggest concern I have. Those who are in control today will not be around forever, and the next batch might not have the same views and motivations. There is nothing new on that front, that happens to any and all organizations.
Nope says
Yeah, but the community sees $0 of it despite years of supporting said group. Yee-flipping-haw