[General-members] Consultation on ASN Fee Harmonization

[ARIN]

ARIN is consulting with the community (https://www.arin.net/participate/community/acsp/consultations/2023/2023-3/) about harmonizing annual registration services fees for Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) so that they will be included in the Registration Services Plan (RSP) fee schedule beginning 1 January 2024. This change will have the benefit of recovering costs more equitably for services to ASN-only holders, with the added benefit of making ASN-only customers ARIN Service Members, thus providing them with the opportunity to become General Members and participate in ARIN governance if they so choose. This change will bring all ARIN customers into a unified, equitable fee schedule.

In 2022, ARIN transitioned end user customers to the RSP fee schedule based on total IPv4 and IPv6 resources held, to ensure costs were distributed in an equitable manner by eliminating the fee differentiation between ISP and end user organizations. Now ARIN is seeking community feedback on a plan to complete the fee harmonization process by transitioning ASNs to the RSP Fee Schedule.

Proposed Fee Harmonization (all fees in USD)

- Organizations holding 1-3 ASNs will be categorized as 3X-Small, with an annual fee of $250.
- Organizations holding 4-15 ASNs will be categorized as 2X-Small, with an annual fee of $500.
- Organizations holding 16-63 ASNs will be categorized as X-Small, with an annual fee of $1000.
- Organizations holding 64-255 ASNs will be categorized as Small, with an annual fee of $2000.
- Organizations holding 256+ ASNs will be categorized as Medium, with an annual fee of $4000.

Based on financial modeling using May 2023 revenue and customer data, there will be a negligible effect on our existing RSP customers due to the proposed fee change, with only 15 existing organizations holding sufficient ASNs where they will transition to a higher fee tier. Among them, two are expected to transition from the 3X/2X-Small service category to the X-Small bracket, while 13 will move from the 3X-Small to the 2X-Small service category. This shift is attributed to changes in fee size classifications based on the balance of ASNs compared to the IPv4 and IPv6 number resources they currently possess.  

Comparatively, for customers who solely hold ASNs, approximately 313 will experience a decrease in their total fees. With the proposed change, they will no longer be charged annual fees for each individual ASN, resulting in savings of between $50 USD to $1,750 USD for these customers. Conversely, the estimated 6,800 single ASN holders will experience an increase in their fees of $100 USD when they are brought under the RSP fee schedule, now falling under the 3X-Small fee service category. While this is a substantial increase on a percentage basis, it more accurately reflects the basic costs of serving an organization with registry services and provides those customers with the opportunity to obtain additional ASNs, IPv4, and/or IPv6 resources with no change in their fee category.

This consultation will remain open for 30 days, after which a summary will be provided to the Board of Trustees for their consideration.

Please provide comments to arin-consult at arin.net. You can subscribe to this mailing list at https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-consult. 
 
Discussion on arin-consult at arin.net will close on 30 July 2023. 

If you have any questions, please contact us at info at arin.net.

Regards,

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)