On September 1, 2007 Roque Gagliano wrote: [...]
The rationale for the new value is: 1) Today IANA allocates 2 x /8 as a normal allocation to every RIR as that is what they are asking as a gentlemen agreement, so the last allocation will have the same size as the actual allocations.
This is not quite the way I would describe it. The last couple of allocations have been for just two /8s despite the RIR qualifying for more. However, if the RIR had qualified for less than two /8s then they would have received just one /8 as that is the minimum allocation size.
Under the current policy an RIR needs to either have less than 50% of /8 free or less than they will need for the next nine months, based on the average rate of allocation over the previous six months. To qualify for more than one /8 an RIR would need to demonstrate that one /8 will not last nine months.
The policy text is fairly clear: http://www.icann.org/general/allocation-IPv4-rirs.html Regards, Leo Vegoda