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Comment by 0xCMP | Hacker News Reader

For the normal users out there. What are the implications? Is this simply IPs being reserved for servers on the internet?

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One implication is that you may not get a real IPv4 address anymore. So your cable/DSL connection will be behind a Carrier grade NAT ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier-grade_NAT ) which breaks applications and causes problems for your internet provider (technical complexity), for software developers (implementation of workarounds for CGNs) and for you, because you suffer the consequences.

Also, more expensive IP addresses raise the barrier to entry for new competitiors, so your internet connection may get more expensive.

The cost of entry argument is specious because everyone has the same variable cost.

The real cause of lack of competition is the cost of physical access.

Currently in the mobile space everyone is behind at least one double-NAT at least, and you can order business level access for your wireless data account and get an IPv4 address allocated to you. AT&T does this for a single $500 fee for example, Sprint as a monthly $3 fee. I imagine this will become common with ISPs - you'll need to upgrade to a gaming/business class in order to make use of port-forwarding etc and for everyone else, some programs will cease to work or not connect as quickly/easily.

And we can't switch to IPv6 ourselves? This this problem need to accelerate user switching (even if just the advanced users) or switching at the ISP level?

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