Malaysia Opens An IP Address Consultation

Malaysia has begun a consultation on whether the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission should regulate the management of IP addresses and autonomous system numbers.

The proposal would update a framework tied to the 1998 law that governs the commission’s activities.

The consultation paper proposes a statutory authority with power over electronic addressing, including IP addresses, AS numbers and associated fees.

The paper says the change would support a National Internet Registry model and put administration of electronic addressing resources under commission oversight.

The proposal turns internet addressing into a national digital-policy issue.

IP addresses and autonomous system numbers are basic routing resources for networks, cloud providers, telecom operators and online services, so shifting authority over them would affect more than a narrow administrative process.

The commission’s argument is framed as administration and sustainability for electronic addressing resources in Malaysia.

The governance dispute starts because the proposed statutory role would sit beside an existing regional registry system that already assigns and manages number resources across Asia-Pacific networks.

APNIC Objects To National Autonomy

The Asian Pacific Network Information Center says its talks with the Malaysian regulator included a desire for full operational and technical autonomy over resource assignments.

APNIC says existing National Internet Registries do not have those powers.

National Internet Registries are a legacy structure from the period before regional internet registries were established.

APNIC and LACNIC allowed them, and only nine exist today, covering China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil.

APNIC stopped accepting new National Internet Registry applications in 2012 and made the moratorium permanent in 2024.

Kenny Huang, APNIC’s executive chair, said in 2024 that NIRs reflected older registry structures that existed when APNIC began and when IPv4 address space was being allocated quickly.

Huang’s position also separates historical registries from new national requests.

The existing NIRs were recognized because some address registries were already operating or being formed when APNIC started, not because APNIC now supports a new country-by-country registry model.

Registry Governance Runs Into State Control

The Malaysian proposal would test the regional registry model if the government pushes ahead.

Internet resource allocation has generally been handled by regional-scale organizations, with governments participating as one voice among several stakeholders rather than taking direct national control of address assignments.

The United Nations last year reaffirmed support for multi-stakeholder internet governance.

That position keeps governments inside the debate, but not as the only authority over how core internet resources are allocated.

Huang has written to the Malaysian regulator that creating a new National Internet Registry is not currently possible under APNIC policy.

He also noted that a consultation and policy process could be started later, after work on ICP-2, the revision of rules for regional internet registries.

The current ICP-2 timeline calls for a revised document by the end of 2026.

Malaysia Has Not Secured A Registry Path

If Malaysia continues with the National Internet Registry plan, it would be moving against APNIC’s current rules.

The policy dispute would likely unfold through consultation and registry-governance procedures rather than through a quick technical handover.

The commission has opened the consultation and described the powers it wants over IP addresses, AS numbers and fees, but it has not secured APNIC approval, a new NIR application path or a timetable for taking over resource assignments.