Recently, RIPE Policy Proposal 2007-01 titled "Direct Internet Resource Assignments to End Users from the RIPE NCC" was passed: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/policies/proposals/2007-01.html Unfortunately, I believe not all aspects of its impact were made clear to the members. For example, in the section marked "Policy Documents to be Affected" there are 4 RIPE documents listed, but *not* listed is the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2008: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-420.html which was changed for 2009 via: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/charging.html The crucial change here is that AS numbers, IPv4 Provider Independent (PI) assignments and IPv6 PI assignments have been changed from a one-time score to a recurring score. Max, jokingly stated in April: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/maillists/archives/address-policy-wg/2008/msg00244.... "May be we should return back old charging scheme when PI is billed yearly to LIRs? This will enforce return unused space, make contracts between LIRs and end-users, and so on just *automagically* ;)" Little did I know that this is what would come to pass - retroactively! Gert stated in Sept: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/maillists/archives/address-policy-wg/2008/msg00537.... "PI is currently scored in the year of assignment, and then never again, so it's not "fully free", but after the initial cost, it is - so the term "basically free" is appropriate. ... As has been mentioned before: the address policy WG does not have the power to actually decide on the final charging scheme. We give input to the AGM (= annual general meeting of all NCC members), and the AGM decides on the final charging scheme to be implemented. So, regarding the *charging* component of 2007-01: the AGM can do this without 2007-01, or they can decide to not do anything about it, even with 2007-01 reaching consensus." Maybe I missed the discussion in regards to 2007-01 where it was stated that the charging algorithm would change. For example, one LIR I consult to was extra small in 2008 (1300Euro) and now is medium (2550Euro). They assigned 54 ASNs between 1997-2005 and no IPv4 or IPv6 address space at all. So since the charging algorithm is now a retroactive recurring score, their bill doubled suddenly. Was this totally understood by us? Thanks, Hank