Summary

  • After IPv4 approval, AFRINIC reserves a prefix of the approved size for 45 days but gives the applicant no details of that prefix.
  • The invoice is valid for 45 days; a new member's unpaid approval becomes void and the temporary reservation returns to the available pool before any WHOIS issuance.

An AFRINIC applicant can win approval for IPv4 and still have no idea which addresses are being held. The registry's resource-management page says that, once a request passes policy review, it temporarily reserves a prefix the size of the approved allocation or assignment. The hold lasts 45 days. The applicant receives an invoice, not the details of the reserved prefix. It is a remarkably literal form of “your request is approved”: the quantity is set, the clock is running, and the actual numbers remain behind the counter.

AFRINIC gives a reason for the arrangement. During IPv4 soft landing, it evaluates requests first in, first out. A temporary hold keeps its operational count of available space aligned with the community's view while applicants settle bills. It also prevents staff from approving more IPv4 than they could issue if every open invoice were paid on time. This is inventory control, not merely a billing reminder. The reserved address range is taken out of availability before the new holder appears in WHOIS.

The invoice and reservation share the same 45-day fuse. AFRINIC's request criteria say payment is due immediately after the invoice is issued, while the invoice remains valid for 45 days. For a new member, failure to pay in that period voids the approval and requires a fresh application. The resources page says the temporary reservation is then released to the available pool. An approval therefore has a real expiry mechanism: policy evaluation can be completed, a block can be held, and neither can turn into a registered allocation if the financial step fails.

Payment is not the only last gate. For a new member, AFRINIC checks that a signed and validated Registration Service Agreement is on record. Only after payment and the agreement are in place does it issue the approved resources and register them in WHOIS. Its criteria give an initial IPv4 applicant an additional concrete burden: a plan to use at least a /23 within eight months, African network infrastructure and any required operating licence. That evidence is examined before the hidden 45-day address hold begins. The visible grant comes after the administrative and financial chain, not at the moment the request is judged sound.

The exception for other resource types sharpens the design choice. AFRINIC says IPv6 prefixes and ASNs are not temporarily reserved this way after approval. IPv4 alone gets the unseen block and the timed hold. A public count of available space can therefore move when a temporary reservation is made, and move back if its invoice lapses, without a new holder ever appearing in WHOIS. AFRINIC's page describes three inventory states—available, allocated or assigned, and reserved—but its applicant-facing process hides which particular prefix is in the middle state.

The official pages give no dated list of individual temporary holds or their expiration rate; such a list would show how often approved requests return to the pool. The important public fact is already plain. AFRINIC controls a 45-day interval in which an applicant has passed resource review, an address range has been removed from available inventory, and the applicant cannot inspect its identity. That is where a neutral bookkeeper becomes the gatekeeper to a usable asset: it holds the numbers, runs the invoice clock and decides when the name finally enters the register.

AFRINIC records