There are a few policy suggestions pushing their way through the RIPE policy development process which discuss how the final remaining IPv4 addresses should be given to end users in the European region.

They all show that the effects of scarsity of IP addresses will be felt before the final few addresses become assigned to end users.  All consumers of addresses will feel constrained, which means all businesses trading online, whether they are a traditional ISP, a growing e-commerce shop, or a datacentre/hosting firm.  The policies under consideration are :

• 2008-06 – Both new and existing organisations requesting IPV4 addresses shall be given addresses only to support transitioning technologies (i.e. infrastructure services which enable access to IPv6 addressed resources.)  They will only be given one block of IPv4 addresses, and this shall be the smallest possible range of addresses as decided by the community at large.  This is the only range of addresses which shall be given to the end user, even if their needs justify more.
• 2009-03 – From summer 2010, any organisation shall only be given enough new addresses to cater for anticipated need for nine months.  By summer 2011, this will change to three months.  Organisations (registries and end users) MUST have used more than half of their address space within six months of assignment or allocation.
• 2009-04 – Organisations must demonstrate that they are implementing an IPv6 transition policy (RFC5211) in order to be given IPv4 addresses.  Allocations from the RIPE NCC will be /27 (32 addresses for the entire registry, e.g. ISP)

This also means that the effects of black market trading in address space will be seen before the ‘anticipated’ IPv4 dry date in 2011.  There are no magic bullets, you (and your customers, suppliers, and partners) need deep pockets, decades worth of existing resources, or an ipv6 transition plan.  The only sensible option is to plan your v6 deployment today.