On January 31 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated two blocks of IPv4 address space to APNIC, the RIR for the Asia-Pacific region. On February 3, IANA allocated equally the remaining blocks to AfriNIC, ARIN (Canada, USA, North Atlantic islands and part of the Caribbean), LACNIC (Latin America and part of the Caribbean) and RIPE NCC (Europe, Middle East and parts of Asia). Each of these blocks represents about 16.7 million possible addresses.

At the present rate of distribution of new addresses by RIRs, some of which are expected to run out as well sometime mid-2011.

AfriNIC, held a press conference at its headquarters in Mauritius on the 8th of March 2011 to relay back to its community the global and regional implications of these events.

The summary of this press conference can be found below.