Today the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) reached the next milestone in its IPv4 exhaustion journey.  There are now only two /8s remaining left, and one of those is the “last /8” which both APNIC and RIPE are already down to.  By current estimations (and particularly Geoff Huston’s), we’re probably about a year away from reaching the final /8 at ARIN.  This, of course, depends on whether the current depletion rate is maintained (which is what happened in the RIPE region), or whether there is an APNIC-style “run on the bank” and panic sets in.  Either way, ARIN’s page on the subject is interesting, as it breaks down the number of contiguous blocks available between /8 and /24.  If any of the big ISPs want a really block, they’d better get in quick, since at the time of writing there’s only one /8 left, two /10s, one /11, two /12s, one /13 and three /14s.

Interesting times ahead, and it will be fascinating to see which way it goes.  Especially as ARIN does not appear to have adopted a “final /8” policy as APNIC and RIPE have done, so it really is a dog-eat-dog race to the finish, pretty much.