Policies for historical Internet resources in the APNIC Whois Database

Table of contents

1   Introduction

This document describes the policies and procedures for the management of historical resource registrations in the APNIC Whois Database.

2   Definitions

2.1 Current resources

Current resources are Internet resources registered by APNIC under explicit policies and agreements. Resources include public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Autonomous System numbers, and reverse DNS delegations.

2.2 Historical resources

Historical resources are Internet resources registered under early registry policies without formal agreements and include:

• Registrations transferred to APNIC as part of the AUNIC to APNIC migration

Some historical resource registrations have been inherited by APNIC from the former AUNIC address registry. A list of resources transferred to APNIC as part of the migration is available in the section about the AUNIC to APNIC migration.


• Registrations transferred as part of the Early Registration Transfer (ERX) project

  Most historical registrations were initially made by the global registries that predated ARIN, such as DDN-NIC, SRI-NIC, and InterNIC. ARIN inherited these registrations automatically when it was established. Historical registrations made to organizations in the APNIC region were transferred to APNIC during 2003 and 2004 as part of the RIRs' Early Registration Transfer (ERX) project. A list of resources transferred to APNIC as part of the ERX project is available.

• Historical APNIC resources

  Historical APNIC resources were delegated to organizations by APNIC prior to the introduction of a membership structure. These resources have always been registered in the APNIC Whois Database, but if the resource holder did not become an APNIC member at any time after the introduction of the membership structure, the resources were not made subject to current APNIC policies.

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3   Principles of Internet resource management

Historical resources were often delegated to organizations in a policy environment quite different to those in use today. Historical resource holders should be aware of the current goals of Internet resource management. More information on the current policy environment can be found in sections 5 and 6 of "Policies for IPv4 address space management in the Asia Pacific region".

3.1   Utilisation of historical IPv4 address space

Utilisation of historical IPv4 address space is taken into account when any organization holding historical IPv4 addresses requests more IPv4 from APNIC.

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4   Protecting historical records in the APNIC Whois Database

APNIC will protect all registrations of historical resources with the APNIC-HM maintainer, a practice consistent with the management of current resources.

To ensure integrity of information, APNIC will not update historical information in the APNIC Whois Database until the resource holder demonstrates the organization's right to the resources and enters a formal agreement with APNIC either as a member or non-member account holder.

4.1   Procedure for updating registrations

To request an update to a historical resource registration, the following steps take place:

1. The resource holder contacts APNIC.
2. APNIC verifies the organization is the legitimate holder of the resources.
3. APNIC updates the historical resource registration in the APNIC Whois Database.

Detailed information on these steps is available on the Maintenance of historical Internet resources page.

Please note that resource holders will not be able to update registration information if they fail to pay the fees associated with their APNIC membership or non-member account.

Historical resource holders with a current APNIC account have access to MyAPNIC, which allows organizations to manage their resources and account information via a secure website.

4.2   Policies applicable to updated historical resources

Historical resources that are updated under this policy are subject to the registration requirements as specified in section 5.1.2 of "Policies for IPv4 address space management in the Asia Pacific region".

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5   Recovery of unused address space

A significant amount of historical address space registered in the APNIC Whois Database is not announced to the global routing table. To recover these globally unrouted resources and place them back in the free pool for reallocation to other networks, APNIC will contact networks responsible for historical address space in the APNIC region that has not been globally routed since 1 January 1998.

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6   Policies for the transfer of historical Internet resources

This section describes the policies and procedures for voluntary transfer of historical resource registrations to current APNIC account holders. Resources transferred under this policy will become subject to the current APNIC policy framework.

6.1   Application of this policy is optional

If historical resources are transferred to an APNIC member, there is the option to make the transfer under the conditions described in this policy. Transfers of Internet resources to current APNIC account holders are purely optional. For information on the different types of transfers available, please see "Guide to the transfer of historical Internet resources".

6.2   Transfer procedure

All transfers of historical resources to current APNIC account holders made under this policy are recognised and registered by APNIC. APNIC does not require any technical review or approval of the resource's current use to approve the transfer. In addition, APNIC does not review any agreements between the parties to a transfer and does not exert any control over the type of agreement between the parties.

To transfer historical resources, the following steps take place:

1. The APNIC member submits the Historical transfer application form;
2. APNIC verifies the existing holder of the resources;
3. The existing holder of the resources provides documents confirming the transfer to the APNIC member;
4. APNIC transfers the resources to the APNIC member's account.

You can find more about the transfer of historical resources in the Manage Resources section of this website.

6.3   Policies applicable to transferred resources

All resources transferred under this policy are subject to the provisions of all normal address management policies. In particular, future address requests from the member must document the use of transferred resources as a part of the member's current resource holdings.

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7   Historical prefix exchange policy

Many networks hold noncontiguous historical address ranges that must be announced separately to the global routing table. To help reduce the size of the global routing table, APNIC will exchange noncontiguous portable historical address ranges registered in the APNIC Whois Database for a single portable CIDR range of equal length or one bit shorter. For example, a network could exchange three noncontiguous /24 address blocks for a contiguous /22 address block.

APNIC will not ask any questions about the utilisation of the address ranges to be exchanged.

APNIC account holders and organizations with no existing relationship with APNIC can take advantage this policy.

7.1   Criteria for exchange of non-contiguous blocks

To exchange of non-contiguous address blocks, a network must meet the following criteria:

• at least three address ranges must be returned that are routed separately;
• all address ranges returned must be portable allocations or portable assignments;
• APNIC can verify the network is the legitimate holder of the address ranges; and
• the network operates in the Asia Pacific area.

Networks wishing to exchange non-contiguous address blocks should use the Provider Independent IP address return form at:

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8   Fees for historical resources

Historical resources are not subject to any APNIC fees unless the resource registrations were updated under the policies described in sections 4 and 6, "Protecting historical records in the APNIC Whois Database" and "Policies for the transfer of historical Internet resources". More information on administrative fees relevant to the policies described in section 4 and 6 are described in detail below.

8.1   Member fees

APNIC members will not be charged any fees outside the existing membership fee structure to maintain historical resources under the policy "Protecting historical records in the APNIC Whois Database" described in section 4.

Historical resources transferred to an APNIC member under the "Policies for the transfer of historical Internet resources" described in section 6 will be considered when assessing the APNIC membership tier at the time of the member's annual renewal.

8.2   APNIC non-member fees

Current APNIC non-member account holders and organizations that do not have a relationship with APNIC will be subject to fees associated with historical resources in the following situations:

1. Resources are transferred to a different organization under the "Policies for the transfer of historical Internet resources" described in section 6.
• Historical resources will then be subject to the normal member or non-member fee structure
2. An APNIC non-member account holder or custodian with no current account with APNIC requests historical registrations to be updated under the policy "Protecting historical records in the APNIC Whois Database" described in section 4.
• These historical resource holders will be subject to a small annual account fee.
• Non-contiguous historical address ranges exchanged under the "Historical prefix exchange policy" described in section 7 are also subject to the annual account fee.

For more information on APNIC member and non-member fees, please see:

• APNIC fee schedule


• APNIC non-member fee schedule