Why Your Business Still Needs to Buy IPv4 Addresses Now
Despite the growing shift toward IPv6, the fact remains that the global pool of IPv4 addresses has reached critical scarcity. Many service providers, data centres, and cloud-hosting environments continue to require public IPv4 addresses for seamless connectivity, geo-location accuracy, BGP routing, and legacy system support.
Purchasing IPv4 blocks gives your organisation long-term stability and full control of essential network resources rather than remaining dependent on leasing arrangements or facing address-shortage bottlenecks. According to current market analysis, the price per individual IPv4 address in credible transactions ranges from approximately US$19 to US$45, excluding transfer/registration fees.
Understanding the IPv4 Market: Supply, Demand & Positioning
IPv4 Exhaustion & Secondary Market Growth
- The original IPv4 32-bit addressing scheme supports ~4.3 billion unique addresses.
- With primary allocations exhausted and very few new blocks released by the regional Internet registries (RIRs), the secondary market has become the primary source for most organisations.
- That scarcity drives competition, price pressure, and risk, making it imperative to work with a trusted broker and a robust due diligence process.
Key Market Drivers & Pricing Dynamics
- Block size matters: /24, /23, /22, and larger blocks from ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC vary widely in availability and price.
- Clean reputation counts: Addresses that have no history of route abuse, blacklisting, bad WHOIS entries, or stale routing objects command a premium.
- Region and registry matter: Transfers across ARIN (North America), RIPE (Europe), or APNIC (Asia-Pacific) involve different policies and fees.
- Speed and complexity: Some blocks can be transferred in weeks, others may take months depending on seller readiness, documentation, and registry approval.
1. Define Target Block Size & Region
We begin by assessing your business requirements: number of public IPs needed, geo-location preferences, ASN/BGP readiness, timeline, and budget constraints.
2. Source Clean IPv4 Inventory
Leveraging our relationships with trusted sellers and brokers, we locate blocks of the right size and region. We prioritise blocks that are dormant or lightly used, ensuring you maximise value.
3. Due Diligence on History, Whois & Route Objects
Before purchase, we verify:
- Ownership legitimacy (chain of custody)
- Absence of blacklisting or spamming history
- Clean and up-to-date routing objects (BGP)
- WHOIS/ARIN/RIPE database accuracy
This mitigates the downstream risk of refusal for peering or blacklists.
4. Negotiate Purchase Agreement & Escrow Payment
We prepare a robust contract covering purchase price, escrow terms, warranties (including indemnification for historic abuse), and a timeline for transfer.
5. Submit Transfer Request to RIR
We handle the entire registry process: build justification, prepare forms (for example, via American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), or Asia‑Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)).
6. Complete Transfer, Update WHOIS & Route Objects
After approval, we finalise the transfer: update the WHOIS or RIR records with your organisation’s details, clear legacy routing entries, and ensure correct registration of the block under your Org-ID.
7. Deploy into Your Network & Ongoing Monitoring
Once live, we monitor your block for reputation, route hijacking, blacklists, and ensure geo-location accuracy. We provide support for BGP announcements, reverse-DNS setup, and future block management.
Why Our Service Stands Apart
- Clean-block guarantee: Each block is analysed using proprietary tools against 100+ global blacklists, route-object history, and usage records.
- Global region coverage: We work across ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC, and AFRINIC, enabling you to match region-specific needs.
- Speed & transparency: Typical transfer completion in 2-3 weeks for standard blocks; we keep you informed every step.
- End-to-end support: From sourcing and negotiation to registry submission, technical deployment, and ongoing monitoring — we manage it all so you focus on your business.
- Strategic cost-control: While market pricing fluctuates (addresses as low as ~$33 each for small blocks), we negotiate efficiently and help structure payment via escrow to protect your investment.
How to Select the Right IPv4 Block for Your Organisation
Block Size & Growth Planning
Choose a block size (e.g., /24 = 256 addresses, /22 = 1,024 addresses) aligned with your immediate and 24-month projected needs. RIRs typically require usage justification in your request.
Geographic & Routing Considerations
If you operate in multiple regions or need geo-specific IPs (for hosting, CDN, gaming, VPN), factor region of allocation, dominant transit providers, and BGP peering topology.
Reputation & Cleanliness Metrics
Avoid blocks with prior abuse history; high blacklist incidence can degrade email deliverability, web traffic quality, and BGP acceptance. A clean block reduces hidden risks.
Transfer Complexity & Timeline
Large blocks or those requiring complex RIR justification will take longer and may incur higher fees. Smaller blocks may offer faster deployment but fewer scaling options.
Ownership vs Leasing
Owning the block gives you full control, long-term asset value, and freedom from lease constraints. Leasing offers flexibility and lower upfront cost but limited control. Many organisations lean toward ownership for strategic stability.
Strategic Considerations: Why Now Is the Right Time
With IPv4 addresses increasingly treated as strategic, finite network assets not simply “just IPs” there is a strong business rationale to act now:
- Suppliers who hold fewer clean blocks are fewer; early action secures better pricing and blocks with optimal history.
- Future IPv4 price inflation is likely as the transition to IPv6 remains gradual and backward compatibility remains required.
- Owning your blocks ensures you are not dependent on third-party lease terms, pricing changes, or policy shifts.
- Having your own registered block bolsters enterprise independence, regulatory compliance, BGP routing stability, and geo-IP accuracy for services such as content delivery, SaaS, gaming, and hosting.
Secure Your Network Future with Confidence
When your business depends on robust public-IP infrastructure whether for hosting, cloud services, VPN endpoints, gaming, content delivery, or global network operations the right IPv4 strategy becomes essential. By following a rigorous acquisition roadmap, assessing block quality, and executing through a trusted partner, you ensure your organisation holds a clean, high-quality IPv4 block on sound terms.
We invite you to reach out today so we can assess your needs, map the optimal block size and region, and begin the sourcing, negotiation, and transfer process. Your network’s foundation and by extension your business success depends on the reliability, reputation, and readiness of your public IP address resources. Let’s build it right.