RIPE NCC drops below two /8s

RIPE NCC's IPv4 pool dropped below two /8s this week.

RIPE NCC is the registry for Europe, the Middle East, Greenland, and Russia. According to their web site, they have just under two /8s left in their pool.

When RIPE's pool falls to one /8, the existing allocation rules will be thrown out, and new allocation rules will go into effect. You might think of these as austerity measures -- they place significant restrictions on IPv4 allocations in an effort to preserve the final /8 as long as possible. APNIC, the Asia-Pacific registry, implemented their final /8 policy over a year ago. This means that IPv4 networking in two of the largest regions is going to get a lot harder.
If you care about internetworking with Europe, the Middle East, Asia, or Australia, you should deploy IPv6 now.