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Lack of IPv4 addresses in Europe? ISPs use opportunity to raise prices

January 14, 2013

I just received email from one of my server providers in Europe “Hetzner” who I have used for over 2 years. I have a rather old server I got with a total of 8 IPs (included) in the monthly price as well as paid a hefty setup fee.

In the over almost 3 years I have never asked for price reduction or upgrade despite better offers elsewhere. Seeing as it was reasonable. I was surprised that Hetzner has out of nowhere increased the price for new IPs and also at the same time applied a 1 Euro per month additional charge for ALL existing IPs that were in fact included in the package. I know that they are not the most clean Hosts out there in their dealing and I have several problems with them. But then again I never put anything critical on their server except for my test projects or projects in development.

The change will affect everyone from March 2013. The thing is I was already looking for an alternate host out of Europe because communication and local laws is a big problem. Several times local individuals have, without substantial investigation, gotten my sites shutdown by easily issued court orders. Some of my sites like the really popular like Grepler.com which then I had to move out of this host due to this harassment.

Here is the extract of the email communication I received when I was checking my mails for price comparison of what i am paying and where to move.

As you are probably aware from various reports in the media, the number of available IPv4 addresses continues to drop drastically on a global level. In Europe, the pool of available addresses has already been completely allocated. We shall also not be receiving any further IPv4 addresses from the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE).

As demand for IPv4 addresses continues to remain very high, we are forced to tighten restrictions as regards both their use and allocation to clients.

For additionally allocated IPv4 addresses and subnets, we are obliged to introduce a new pricing model for both existing and new orders.

As a first step from 1 March 2013, additional single IPs which are to be used in addition to the Main IP will be charged at a price of 1 euro per month. This excludes the additional IP address required for the chargeable KVM-over-IP Remote Management Option. The change affects existing clients, who have obtained IP addresses without additional charge. Nothing changes for clients who are already being charged for additional single IPs.

Furthermore, adjustments in the monthly price for regular and failover subnets will take place. Clients who are affected here are those who have up to now received subnets free-of-charge or at favorable rates.

From 1 March, the price will change for /29 subnets which have already been allocated to clients. Prices for larger subnets for existing contracts will be adjusted in the months following, so as to provide clients who have correspondingly larger nets with a little more time to prepare for consolidation of the nets.

The following overview serves to clarify the introduction of the pricing adjustment as well as the future conditions:

Price valid from  Product              Price per Month 1 March 2013      /30 Subnet           4 euros 1 March 2013      /29 Subnet           8 euros 1 March 2013      /29 Failover Subnet  18 euros 1 April 2013      /28 Subnet           16 euros 1 April 2013      /28 Failover Subnet  26 euros 1 May 2013        /27 Subnet           32 euros 1 May 2013        /27 Failover Subnet  42 euros 1 May 2013        /26 Subnet           64 euros 1 May 2013        /26 Failover Subnet  74 euros 1 June 2013       /25 Subnet           128 euros 1 June 2013       /25 Failover Subnet  138 euros 1 June 2013       /24 Subnet           256 euros 1 June 2013       /24 Failover Subnet  266 euros 1 June 2013       /23 Subnet           512 euros

The “Price valid from” is for existing subnets. The prices mentioned above immediately apply to all new orders for subnets. All prices incl. 19% VAT.

The email then described how much I will add on which is 8 euros. This price increase includes ALL IPs including the bare minimum  single IP you need for a server to operate anyway. My current server where the impact is highest is this old server I have which is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+ single CPU with 8 IPs for which I pay 41 Euros to this day. with 8 Euro added it is a 20% increase.

Further to this they add that you can return the IPs (so they can sell for more) or you can get max of 3 IPs (chargeable)

(contd…)With this measure, we hope to receive any unused single IPs as well as subnets from you. Depending on the size of the subnet, it is possible for you to return whole subnets to us and to receive chargeable single IPs (max. three per server) in return

Well for one I knew I should not have paid them again to upgrade the second server I have with them which has seen several hardware failures in the first year of operation. Secondly I should have made my move long time ago, but you know its a whole lot of work to do so. I think it’s a good time to move out. What is disappointing is that they have changed the terms of agreement. What they included as part of package is now being charged again. Fact is we ran out of IPv4 over an year ago if I am not wrong. Obviously some people are willing to pay a bit more and now the same Hosts who used IP addresses in their offers are smashing through the agreements to get them back for that extra penny.  They want their subnets? They can have their whole servers back.

Problem is they don’t support IPv6 anyway. A lot of new hosts already support it and the DNS like Cloudflare, AWS RDS and Godaddy(not sure about this guy) also support it.

So far it was a very stressed situation with Hetzner.de and I am more than happy to let go and move on. I completely blame myself for falling for the cheap hosting when I went to hetzner. I don’t think other europe hosting is behind.

Considering 100Tb or liquidweb. Problem is, I automatically hate hosting that paste the word “cloud” for no good reason except buzzwords to charge more. So those are easily out. Feel free to suggest a good host for me :)


You are welcome to connect with me. Abhishek Dujari
This is my archived blog where you will find content about early days of Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Development and Sysadmin.