Ok, that’s basically what I was thinking. 

Thanks for explaining all that!

Undisciplined

That's ARIN

https://www.arin.net/resources/guide/request/

> what would a competitor to ICANN look like

A hard fork of the internet amounting to a private network

justin_shocknet

Its hard to say really. All of the IP space is "owned", ICANN is more akin to your local registrar's office, they are recording who owns what, not "deciding" who owns what.

So image a state like Texas, in the early days they were giving out land to encourage settlers, but now local gov offices merely record who owns what since there is no more "free land" to give out.

AskSN

tech

Where do ISP's get their internet from?

Its hard to say really. All of the IP space is "owned", ICANN is more akin to your local registrar's office, they are recording who owns what, not "deciding" who owns what. 

So image a state like Texas, in the early days they were giving out land to encourage settlers, but now local gov offices merely record who owns what since there is no more "free land" to give out.