Summary

  • A June 2025 submission signed by SANOG chair Rupesh Shrestha sought discounts of 35%, 25% and 15% over three post-graduation years, then full fees in year four.
  • APNIC’s EC adopted 25% off only the first renewal for Very Small accounts; all larger accounts face the full rate immediately and every account reaches full fees by its second renewal.

The proposal gave APNIC a staircase. The decision built a single step. In a 25 June 2025 submission to the Executive Council, Rupesh Shrestha, signing as chair of the South Asian Network Operators Group, asked for the existing 50% least-developed-country discount to fall to 35% in the first year after graduation, 25% in the second, 15% in the third and zero in the fourth. He argued that crossing a UN development threshold would not immediately make operators able to absorb the full membership price. The submission warned of unhappy members and reduced membership. Those were arguments made to the EC, not measured outcomes.

APNIC’s 12 September 2025 account of the EC resolution shows where that request landed. At the first renewal after an economy graduates, a Very Small account receives a 25% discount from the full fee. Every other account pays the full fee at that renewal. At the second renewal, everyone pays the full fee. The four-year ramp disappeared; the adopted bridge lasts one billing cycle and stops at a membership-tier boundary.

That boundary has a technical definition. APNIC’s membership structure puts Very Small at no more than an IPv4 /22 or IPv6 /35. It reviews holdings at renewal and uses the higher tier when an account holds both protocols. An operator with little IPv4 space and a larger IPv6 allocation can therefore fall outside the one-renewal bridge. APNIC says its chosen discount will assist about 71% of accounts in Bangladesh, Nepal and Lao PDR that are scheduled to graduate. The public announcement gives that estimate, but no account-level distribution behind it.

The published LDC fee table makes the bridge tangible for one /24 holding. It lists AUD678 under the 2027 50% LDC discount, AUD1017 under the graduated-economy 25% discount and AUD1356 at the full rate. On that illustration, the first change adds AUD339 and the next adds another AUD339. A member above Very Small skips the discounted middle figure under the resolution. The table is a fee example, not a bill for every operator.

APNIC also offers instalments or payment extensions case by case. Those change when a member pays; the published rate and the EC’s tier line remain. The choice is visible in the documents: a community submission asked the registry to spread the price change across several years, and its governing committee targeted relief to the smallest measured accounts for one renewal. APNIC did not merely shorten a schedule. It chose who receives time.