Unmasking Internet Centralization Through IP Address Consolidation
In short:
- IP addresses are highly centralized in certain countries, particularly in parts of Africa and the Middle East, often controlled by a few organizations, frequently state-owned telecommunications operators.
- A major driver of this IP centralization is the scarcity of IPv4, which still underpin much of today’s Internet infrastructure.
- For the Internet to remain open and resilient, the underlying layers must be as diverse as the user-facing layers.
Studies on "Internet centralization" have traditionally focused on the dominance of a few content distribution networks (CDNs) or cloud providers at the global level and transit providers at the country level. As part of my 2025 Pulse Research Fellowship, I sought to explore another layer of consolidation of Internet infrastructure: Internet Protocol (IP) address ownership.
IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) are the Internet’s addressing system. Any device, network, or service that wants to be reachable online needs one. Five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and several National Internet Registries (NIRs) allocate these IP addresses.
The organizations that receive allocations from the registries, often Internet Service Providers (ISPs), further distribute these addresses to their customers and also determine how to provide connectivity to them, whether to allow further redistribution, and which security measures should be deployed to protect traffic reaching these addresses.
My study examined the concentration of IP resources among organizations within individual countries.
IP Address Consolidation Patterns Across Countries
In much of Europe, IP addresses are widely distributed, and no single organization controls access to a significant portion of the address space within a nation.
In contrast, the picture differs across parts of Africa and the Middle East (Figure 1). Countries such as Yemen, Libya, and Algeria exhibit high levels of centralization, indicating that few organizations control most of the addresses that are actually routed on the global Internet. In several of these cases, a state-owned telecommunications operator holds an effective monopoly over the routed address space.
Figure 1 — African nations account for the majority of the top 30 countries with highly centralized routed IPv4 address space. A high Centralization score indicates greater consolidation of IP addresses among a small number of organizations within a nation.
Some of the nations with the highest degree of centralization are the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Yemen, and Uruguay. The leading organization in each of these nations is the state-owned telecommunications operator.
I also identified nations such as:
- Turkmenistan and other Eastern European nations, where the application and web layers appear relatively less centralized, but the IP address layer shows a strong centralization.
- Cuba and Libya, where centralization is observed in multiple layers, making it difficult to build a more resilient Internet ecosystem.
This hidden concentration increases the risk of outages and Internet disruptions. Assessments of Internet resilience, therefore, need to examine multiple layers, not just content and applications.
IP Layer Highlights Organizations Invisible in Other Layers
Large address holders, such as Cloud Innovation Ltd, control substantial reserves of IP addresses and lease or otherwise provide access to them in more than 100 countries, without hosting content or operating consumer-facing services. Because their role is limited to the IP layer, these organizations can be largely invisible in application, web, or content analyses; yet they still shape how other organizations access and use IP resources.
Figure 2 — Centralization of routed IPv4 addresses across countries. North Korea, Yemen, Algeria, and Uruguay are some of the nations with the highest Centralization scores.
The IPv4 vs. IPv6 Divide
A major driver of this IP centralization is the scarcity of older IP addresses (IPv4), which still underpin much of today’s Internet infrastructure.
Large organizations, including government departments and universities in North America, were among the first to receive IPv4 allocations before the establishment of RIRs and NIRs. These organizations hold vast reserves of IPv4 addresses that generate little to no traffic, while newer entrants to the IP space remain in long waitlists for IPv4 allocations. This dynamic limits new entrants and concentrates power among holders of large IPv4 address blocks.
However, the routed IPv6 address space shows less consolidation than IPv4, indicating a less centralized ecosystem.
The Way Forward: Recommendations for Industry and Regulators
For the Internet to remain open and resilient, the underlying layers must be as diverse as the user-facing layers. The findings suggest two paths forward for regulators and industry actors:
- Accelerate IPv6 Adoption: Transitioning to IPv6 would reduce the influence of entities holding vast reserves of IPv4 address blocks and enable a more equitable distribution of resources.
- Monitor State Monopolies: In countries where a single state-owned entity acts as the sole service provider, the risk to Internet stability is highest. Diversifying the market is essential for resilience.
To explore the data, methods, and country-level rankings in detail, we encourage you to review my presentation at Pulse Internet Measurement Forum, Spain or contact [email protected].
Deepak Gouda is a 2025 Pulse Research Fellow and a PhD student in Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology.