Do you need your own AS number?

You need your own AS number to make your own routing decisions: to announce your addresses through more than one upstream, to move between providers without asking anyone, or to run BGP where a provider expects it. You do not need one to use IP addresses. An upstream, a cloud or a tunnel can announce your block for you, and for many networks that is the better choice.

What an AS number is

An autonomous system number identifies a network with its own routing policy on the internet. It is what appears as the origin of your routes in BGP, in your ROAs and in your route objects. Public AS numbers come from the regional registries; private ones, such as 64512 to 65534, are for use inside a network or on a session with a single provider, never on the open internet (what is an ASN has the reserved ranges and how each registry hands them out).

When you do not need one

• Your upstream announces the block. A colocation or transit provider originates your prefix from its own ASN. The ROA names the provider's ASN, and you need no BGP at all.
• A cloud announces it under BYOIP. AWS, Azure and Google Cloud originate your prefix from their own ASNs (BYOIP guides).
• A tunnel delivers it. A network that announces the block carries it to your server over GRE or WireGuard (how the tunnel works).

In all three, someone else's AS carries your addresses. You keep the addresses; you give up some control over how traffic reaches them.

When you do

• More than one upstream. Multihoming, with failover you control, is the classic reason, and under today's rules the one the registry asks about.
• Your own edge. You want to announce the block yourself from your routers, choose your providers and leave one without renumbering.
• Providers that require it. Hetzner's BGP upstream for colocation needs your own ASN (Hetzner), as does BYOIP at some hosting providers.
• Peering. Connecting to internet exchanges and peering directly with other networks needs an AS of your own.

Getting one in the RIPE NCC service region

A RIPE NCC member requests one itself. Anyone else needs a contract: with a sponsoring LIR, which makes the request and keeps the registration current (what a sponsoring LIR does), or directly with the RIPE NCC, though RIPE policy prefers the sponsor.

Today's policy says plainly: "A network must be multihomed in order to qualify for an AS Number", and a new AS number has to be justified by a new external routing policy. In practice the request names the upstreams you will connect to.

That may change. RIPE policy proposal 2026-01, "Simplify assignment of first ASN", would let holders of space allocated or assigned by the RIPE NCC (allocations and PI assignments) receive their first AS number without a needs justification and without the multihoming requirement. Version 2.0 adds one sentence: "Once the AS number is in use, its routing policy should be registered." The proposal is in its Review Phase, and the RIPE NCC's announcement of 12 October 2026 invites comments from the community before 10 November 2026. Note what it does not cover: an organization that only leases its addresses holds no space of its own, so it would still go through the multihoming route.

After you have it

1. An aut-num object in the RIPE Database describing your routing policy: which networks you take routes from and announce routes to.
2. Route objects for every prefix you will announce, with your ASN as origin (route objects).
3. ROAs naming your ASN, changed in the same window as any routing change (RPKI and ROAs).
4. An ASPA object listing your upstreams, once you have them. The RIPE NCC, ARIN and APNIC all let you sign one.

What it costs

The member figures are the RIPE NCC's charging schemes for 2026 and 2027 (RIPE-848 and RIPE-867).

Where RTM Networks fits

We sponsor AS numbers for organizations that are not RIPE NCC members, at €99 a year and €149 once, make the request with you, and set up the aut-num, the route objects and the ROAs for the space you announce (PI and ASN sponsorship). If it turns out you do not need an ASN, we can announce your space and deliver it over a tunnel instead (GRE and WireGuard tunnels).