Hi everyone! I am back from a fantastic conference on community wireless networking. In the United States, there is increasing interest by non-commercial organizations to use unlicensed spectrum access to provide free or low-cost Internet connectivity to poor urban neighborhoods and rural communities. At the conference, I discovered that there is an urgent need for more address space. Nearly all community wireless networks are deployed behind NAT boxes, which creates difficulties for those trying to foster independent community media projects or voice over IP for community networks. The issue is purely financial. Community networks cannot afford v6 blocks of address space. While address blocks are modestly priced by commercial standards, they are beyond the reach of community wireless projects. I had one administrator tell me that the cost of a v6 block would be higher than the cost of his entire network combined. What is worse, because it is an annual registration fee, v6 space would constitute a continuing expense. Even if a network can raise the money for an initial registration via a grant, there is a problem of sustainability. In any event, what is needed is not a one shot cure for a single network, but a systemic way of addressing the issue. I would very much like to talk to people in the RIR community about this issue in the hopes of working out a solution (I have some ideas). But I do not know who in the RIR community or the broader ICANN community would be interested and sympathetic to the issue. I suspect this issue goes beyond the scope of the NCUC, since this is the naming side of the street. However, I expect that access to address space has been a long standing issue outside of the U.S., and would be very eager to hear from anyone outside the U.S. what problems getting affordable address space you have and what solutions (other than NAT) are available. Finally, if there is a sense within the Consticuency that numbering issues are appropriately addressed here (since there is no other place within the ICANN structure to raise issues of unique concern to the noncommercial community), please let me know. Harold Feld