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Wow, this sounds crazy to an outsider. I highly recommend reading deep into the mailing list conversation from the link. It really does sound like a private org
by z3ugma 7y ago
Wow, this sounds crazy to an outsider. I highly recommend reading deep into the mailing list conversation from the link. It really does sound like a private organization "squatted" on a public resource, went under the radar for a long time, and then cashed out on their adverse possession.
My outsider perspective on this is ARIN needs to provide a transparency report on the number of complaints it received from legitimate ham operators who attempted to register addresses in this block but were denied by ARDC, and a general oversight review of the characteristics of ARDC as a community steward of this space.
- scroot 7y agoAMPR was one of the first organizations to register with the DNS in the early 80's. It was an original player on the ARPANET before it was "the Internet." In fact, they tried to register in 1987 using their own TLD (.AMPR) because, according to them, they were a "mobile" network (didn't fall under the ccTLDs) and did not fit into any of the existing gTLD categories. After some deliberation the NIC ultimately registered them under .ORG in 1988.
- icedchai 7y agoARDC had administrative control of 44.0.0.0/8 for decades. It's not squatting... It's their space. There aren't enough active Hams in the world to use all of it, so nothing is lost. We'll all benefit more from Amazon and their customers making use of some of it.
- throwaway2048 7y agoARDC is supposed to be controlling it on behalf of amateur radio operators throughout the world, not selling it off to amazon. A mission that they have completely ignored for years and years at a time mind you, it has been nearly impossible to get allocations out of them for extended stretches of time.
- nullbyte 7y agoI don't like mega-corporations stealing away the "public land" of the RF spectrum. This is like having a nice public park in your neighborhood get replaced with a Goldman Sachs corporate building.
- icedchai 7y agoThe difference is those public parks get used. 44.0.0.0/8 is mostly empty.
- nullbyte 7y agoEven so, we're left with less space than we had before. To my knowledge the FCC is pretty liberal with dishing out public RF spectrum ranges to private entities, but they're much more conservative with turning over private RF ranges to the public. Every part of the RF spectrum that the public loses is unlikely to be reclaimed. We have less airspace, permanently.
- PunksATawnyFill 7y agoEven more objectionable when the government apparently doesn't have enough spectrum for actual public-service needs. Witness the hack that is our "next-gen" air-traffic system, ADS-B, which (if I remember correctly) is a hokey two-system, ground-dependent approach because of a lack of sufficient spectrum.
- londons_explore 7y agoThe FCC is shortsighted for not making all spectrum be leased. It should all be on 25 year leases, auctioned a few years in advance of expiry.
- mycall 7y agoCongress could reclaim spectrum anytime they want, in theory.
- deadmetheny 7y agoARDC is notorious for radio silence followed by soundly rejecting claims for address space. They're absolutely squatting on it and hoping it flies under the radar, as noted in other comments.
- gtirloni 7y ago