Marco Schmidt wrote on 08/06/2023 14:30:
We also plan to intensify our ongoing project to clean up unused Autonomous System (AS) Numbers [2]. Almost 2,000 unused ASNs have been recovered as part of this work so far. Do you support our approach here? And are there other ways we could improve the situation? Perhaps you could add clarification on requesting and returning ASNs in the relevant RIPE policy, or maybe we could give a stronger mandate and responsibility to the sponsoring LIRs.
Hi Marco, There are good reasons to clean up unused ASN16s, as they are categorised by policy as scarce resources. There isn't a compelling reason to get as excited about ASN32s, other than to say that normal good stewardship practices should apply. Unfortunately there is a disconnect between RIPE policy and RIPE NCC practice in regard to charges for ASNs. This is a real shame because paying for resources is one of the simpler ways of creating positive pressure to return them if they're unused. The community would benefit from the board re-thinking this. Nick