[arin-ppml] ASN transfers...

[Benson Schliesser]

On Sep 20, 2011, at 12:46 PM, John Curran wrote:

> On Sep 20, 2011, at 11:00 AM, Martin Hannigan wrote:
>> 
>> ARIN?
> 
> 
> IPv4, IPv6, and ASN number resources are potentially
> transferrable under NRPM 8.2 (M&A).
> 
> Only IPv4 resources are potentially transferrable under
> NRPM 8.3 (specified transfer) given the current language.


I'm curious: do folks see value in being able to transfer an ASN without transferring the underlying business?

IP addresses can be decoupled from the network, transferred independently, and provide value to the recipient.  Perhaps this is also true of an ASN, but an ASN tends to be more coupled to the business relationships that form the network topology, which suggests that it makes more sense as part of a larger M&A activity. And while there are parallels, we're not facing the same kind of shortage of ASNs that we're facing with IPv4 - their effect on growth is of a different order.

So, it's not clear to me why somebody might want to transfer an ASN independently?  Not that this is a reason to disallow it. But I'm curious.

Cheers,
-Benson