1 week Ago By Simon Sharwood
Interview Before you get to know Jia Rong Low, the recently appointed director general of the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), you might want to check your definition of "the internet." The Register offers that advice because Low's definition covers what he calls "the technology that allows your device to connect to mine, which essentially means we use the same set of unique identifiers, the same protocols." His definition of "internet" therefore includes IP addressing, the domain name system, TCP/IP – and not much else.
The key thing is the entire internet uses this set of technologies We learned this a few minutes into a recent interview with Low, held to mark his appointment as APNIC's first new director general in 26 years. It's a huge job because the center is the regional internet registry charged with the management of IP addresses and autonomous system numbers across 56 economies in the Asia-Pacific, a region encompassing over four billion people. Every ISP, carrier, and network service provider in the region relies on APNIC – and can ask it to allocate IP addresses from the small and dwindling pool of in-demand IPv4 resources and the largely untapped riches of the IPv6 number space.
Few figures in tech serve in a role that can impact the lives of so many. Low came to the job after an early career role at Singapore's foreign service and 11 years at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), where he rose to become regional managing director and vice president. He told The Register that in his role at ICANN, "I don't think I've felt anything more important than defending a single global internet.
" He's brought the same mission to APNIC. During his time at ICANN, Low worked to inform governments about key internet technologies as they grappled with the sudden arrival of the World Wide Web and smartphones. "That served the larger goal that is defending the global internet, because if governments understood how internet worked, how it's governed, then you reduce one threat vector," he said, by hopefully arming policymakers with enough info to stop them pursuing a bad policy.
"What we are doing indirectly benefits humankind," he told The Register . "If the internet were to fragment for whatever reason, we dial back decades of progress." The Register put it to Low that internet fragmentation is already evident across Asia.
China operates the Great Firewall to block much of the global internet. India quells protests by suspending internet access and bans Chinese apps. Pakistan often blocks content on religious grounds.
Australia plans to ban children under 16 from using social media. Such developments, while significant, fall outside Low's professional remit. "What happens on top is not fundamentally 'internet,'" he replied, before offering the definition of "internet" mentioned above.
"The key thing is the entire internet uses this set of technologies," he added. "We could move to something else in future. But the key thing is that the entire internet remains unified using this set.
" Low arrived at APNIC in October 2024 and six weeks later delivered an update to its strategic plan. "The old one said what APNIC wants to do, but not what it wants to achieve," he said. What happens on top is not fundamentally 'internet' He changed it to be clearer and is looking at how APNIC's internal teams can evolve to ensure the registry achieves its stated goals.
Addressing APNIC's finances is part of that process. The registry currently runs a budget deficit and has announced fee increases to help improve its position. Low plans additional changes to ensure APNIC becomes financially stable, is pursuing operational efficiencies, and aims to return the organization to the black by 2027.
He also intends to develop a five-year strategic plan and activity plan tied to a projected budget. That's a longer planning horizon than APNIC has previously offered to its members, but a time frame Low thinks is needed because the registry's fees are a hot issue for its members. "If everyone can see a five-year forecast, if we have to raise fees, we can justify that," he said.
"Right now everyone's kind of living from day to day. If I can give members that predictability, that probably has more value than coming up with new products. That's the feedback I've been getting.
" APNIC director general Jia Rong Low – click to enlarge He also plans to more precisely define APNIC's goal of fostering community engagement, which he feels is currently poorly defined. Low's vision for engagement suggests APNIC becomes a "knowledge exchange space" that uses the combined reach of its blog, podcast, mailing lists, and conferences to encourage more communication and collaboration among members and other interested parties such as network operator groups. Doing so, he believes, will mean APNIC members can more easily become involved in both professional debate and development of policy for the registry.
And when they do so, he hopes they'll appreciate that APNIC does more than charge fees to manage IP addresses. Jia Rong Low succeeds Paul Wilson, who held the role of director general for 26 years and in a farewell to APNIC delivered in February warned that the organization needs to take "hard decisions" to "protect and defend itself" and its role so it can ensure that number resources are managed for the public benefit. In correspondence with The Register , he explained his remarks.
The Register : Why does APNIC need to protect and defend itself? Paul Wilson : APNIC has functions which are critical to the internet, and which therefore need to be protected from disruption. But as a mature and autonomous organization, APNIC should not expect protection to come from elsewhere; to do so would compromise APNIC's independence and neutrality, and avoid a fundamental responsibility. Of course APNIC does have active supporters from across the community, but the maintenance of that support is also APNIC's responsibility, and cannot be taken for granted.
The Register : Who does APNIC need to defend against? Paul Wilson : APNIC is part of the multi-stakeholder system of internet governance, and for many years, there have been attacks on that system, aiming to replace it with something very different, typically a governmental approach. Some of these attacks are designed not merely to replace existing governance structures, but to achieve changes to the internet itself, for instance to limit openness, accessibility, privacy, and freedom to innovate. The Register : Why are "hard decisions" needed? Paul Wilson : The RIR [Regional Internet Registry] model is one of community self-regulation which produces decisions which are in the common interest.
In the case of IP address policy, however, decisions can be made which are more in the interests of individual participants than in the interests of the collective or of the internet itself. These decisions may sometimes be hard to alter or reverse, even if the common interest is clear. The Register : What would such decisions achieve? Paul Wilson : RIR policies have been permissive of freedom to hold unused IP addresses, and to transfer addresses on an open market.
While this has been useful in bringing unused addresses into circulation, it has also resulted in escalation of costs, and concentration of addresses in the hands of what are effectively private registries. Taken further, this trend will undermine the resources and capabilities of the RIRs, even while the cost of addresses continues to escalate. To protect against this trend may involve additional constraints on IP address usage, which may limit the individual freedom of address holders.
Such decisions are naturally difficult to achieve, but may be necessary for the health of the registry system and its functions, and therefore of the internet itself. APNIC has plenty of policy matters to consider. At the recent APRICOT conference, proposals to improve WHOIS privacy and transparency were tabled but not passed.
APNIC itself recently proposed reform of its executive council – its equivalent of an elected board – that would increase members' terms in office from two to three years but limit the number of terms each can serve to three. Low thinks a strong knowledge exchange will mean such proposals can be effectively debated. Another set of stakeholders who he hopes will benefit from easier collaboration are the seven APNIC member states that operate National Internet Registries (NIRs) and have a subset of APNIC's powers and responsibilities.
One example of the need for the NIRs to work together is the 2024 investigation by the Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers of 52 suspicious IP resource allocations. Indonesia's NIR detected 1,200 IPv4 delegations that "share a variety of common elements" and therefore arouse suspicions. The process developed for the Indian probe has been deployed in Indonesia.
APNIC will also benefit from the work in India as it embarks on an exploratory audit of its last decade of delegations. Low recognizes that even with better collaboration tools, the internet governance community's less-than-speedy policy processes will mean change doesn't come quickly. However, he thinks the APNIC community understands that community-led processes take time, and that moving slowly means deliberations are extensively documented and demonstrate that APNIC is not overriding members or NIRs.
We have to work to strengthen the way we work with the community "It can look like progress is quite slow, but the idea is because we have so many different stakeholders, we want to make sure we cover all the bases," he told The Register . "Moving slowly means that people can see the governance that's embedded in the process." And when they can see how APNIC works, and join its deliberations, they're more likely to join Low on his mission to defend the internet.
"If you don't defend the global internet and it breaks, you can forget about us serving APNIC members," he said. "So we have to work to strengthen the way we work with the community. It's not by creating more process, but by making ourselves interesting first.
And then we are able to stay relevant." ®.
