The First 20 Years

In 1993, at the APCCIRN meeting in Honolulu, attendees discussed and accepted a proposed plan for a NIC in the region, to be called APNIC. The APNIC pilot project or experiment was charted to begin operation in September 1993 and ended in June 1994. In April 1994, IANA publicly recognized APNIC’s status by delegating the IPv4 address ranges 202/8 and 203/8 and by the end of the experiment, APNIC was serving 27 Members from 12 economies.By the end of 1995, APNIC had begun making strong connections throughout the region with the establishment of APNIC Meetings and the launch of APRICOT. However, there were still some organizational challenges to overcome.

By the start of 1996, APNIC had successfully completed the “APNIC experiment” but now needed a stable funding source, organizational independence, and legal recognition to meet accelerating service demands.

The Secretariat proposed forming a company (originally intended to be incorporated in New Zealand) and establishing a formal membership that would receive services from the company and elect its board of directors. APNIC’s legal advisors found problems with New Zealand incorporation and ultimately recommended incorporation in the Seychelles. Remaining in Japan was not a strong option for legal and taxation reasons, so APNIC consultants (KPMG) surveyed the region and secured favourable conditions in Brisbane.

As this was confirmed, David Conrad announced he would not continue as Director General, so KPMG began an international recruitment process, culminating in the appointment of Paul Wilson.

APNIC then managed the transition from Tokyo to Brisbane, at low cost, with no interruption to services. From there, it continued to operate with an almost entirely new staff.

With the creation of APNIC’s new organizational structure, the first Executive Council was formed.

The late 1990’s and early 2000s presented tough challenges for the Asia Pacific region, but during this decade we see APNIC establish itself as a mature, highly professional service organization.APNIC staff and membership steadily increased, and in 2000, APNIC membership grew by a record 52%.  2002 marked a period of considerable organizational growth, with the recognition of National Internet Registries (NIRs); the launch of multilingual help desk services and MyAPNIC, the launch of the Internet Routing Registry (IRR), and the deployment of a root server project.

APNIC’s training also expanded with the addition of new courses, and to accommodate geographical distance and time zone differences, APNIC started providing eLearning training in 2006.

In 2007, the APNIC community resolved to actively promote the deployment of IPv6, and in 2008, complemented this initiative by introducing the APNIC IPv6 Program to help community members transition smoothly to IPv6.

By 2010, it was becoming clear that IPv4 exhaustion was an imminent certainty, and to encourage IPv6 deployment, APNIC launched the “Kickstart IPv6” policy, which allows existing IPv4 holders to automatically receive an IPv6 allocation through MyAPNIC and “kick start” their IPv6 deployment.

In 2011, APNIC’s request to IANA for two unreserved IPv4 address blocks triggered the final global distribution policy. As a result,  IANA made the final allocation of IPv4 space to the RIRs. In that same year, APNIC made its last regular IPv4 allocation, activating the “last /8 policy”.

2012 saw a shift in APNIC’s service offering, from delegation to transfers. APNIC has since established a sanctioned mechanism to allow transfers of IPv4 address space both intra and inter-regionally, processing its first inter-regional transfer between an APNIC Member and an organization in the ARIN region in October. In December 2012, APNIC participated in WCIT-12 by contributing a series of articles distinguishing the Internet and telephony models. This helped to inform discussion about updates to the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs).

In 2013, APNIC celebrated its 20^th anniversary. As part of Kilnom Chon’s Asia History Project, former staff member Gerard Ross contributed a chapter titled ‘The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) – Formation and early operations (1992-1995).

APNIC received ISO 9001:2008 Certification, an internationally recognized quality management standard. APNIC also held its first regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur and implemented DNSSEC in the apnic.net zone to increase the security of our online services.