Summary

  • APNIC lets an IPv4 recipient secure a 24-month pre-approval of need before a source is found. A transfer within the approved size can then proceed without a fresh need justification.
  • The source still initiates an intra-APNIC case; the recipient must acknowledge it within 30 days or the request is cancelled. An approved transfer still waits for the applicable fee before APNIC updates Whois.

A buyer’s permission is not a seller’s delivery

Imagine a network operator with a signed APNIC pre-approval and a capacity plan. That paper answers one question: how much IPv4 the buyer has justified to the registry. It does not identify a willing seller or register a particular prefix. APNIC’s transfer guide says a recipient can seek approval before finding a source. The approval is valid for 24 months. If a source appears within the approved size, APNIC need not ask the recipient to justify the need again. That removes a repeat review from the transaction; it does not move the addresses.

The next clock belongs to the actual deal. For a transfer between APNIC accounts, the source initiates the request in MyAPNIC. The recipient must acknowledge within 30 days of that initiation or the request is cancelled. APNIC then evaluates the case against its IPv4 transfer criteria. A buyer who spent months obtaining approval can lose this particular request through an unanswered workflow notification. The two-year document and the 30-day response are separate controls, with separate owners.

The final gate is money and the registry record. For an approved intra-APNIC transfer, APNIC says the recipient pays a transfer fee, except for NIR members, before the IPv4 registration is updated in Whois. The transferred space may also change the recipient’s renewal fee. APNIC’s transfer conditions distinguish a first IPv4 transfer to a new or addressless existing account, which requires the annual membership fee before completion, from other recipient accounts that pay a transfer fee. A buyer cannot treat the pre-approval as a fee receipt.

The commercial sequencing is the point. A seller can be ready, a buyer can be pre-approved, and the public registry can still show the old holder while acknowledgement, evaluation or payment remains open. Routing plans and customer notices should refer to the registry update that actually completes, not to the date on the buyer’s eligibility letter. The available APNIC documents describe the process; they provide no observed delay or loss for a named buyer.

APNIC has drawn a narrow but consequential line: it can let a buyer prepare for a market transaction without pretending that preparation is the transaction. The buyer gains speed only if the team responsible for the live request knows which clock starts when the seller presses submit.

Sources