Hi Cynthia,

Although it can happen that an object in the RIPE Database has no "sponsoring-org:" attribute, this is usually a temporary state of affairs that arises during the deregistration process.

There are several cases that can lead to deregistration. For AS numbers with the status ASSIGNED, this can occur when:

- the End user organisation ceases to exist

- the End User ends his contract with the sponsoring LIR

- the End User doesn't have a sponsoring LIR

When such cases arise, we send an official notification by email to all registered contacts for the relevant LIR. In the email, we state that the Internet number resources will be deregistered, we explain why, and we give a description of the deregistration procedure.

Importantly, with respect to your question, we also provide a timeframe of three months for members to take care of any actions necessary for the deregistration of the Internet number resources. During that time, it is indeed the case that the object will not have a "sponsoring-org:" attribute. Further details are provided in the following documentation:

https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-697#b22

In a limited number of cases, involving AS numbers with the status LEGACY, it can happen that, since the End user does not have any contractural relationship with the RIPE NCC, they will therefore not have a "sponsoring-org:" attribute.

https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-629

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.
Kind regards,

Xavier Le Bris

Senior Internet Resource Analyst
RIPE NCC

On 7 Jan 2019, at 10:57, Cynthia Revström via db-wg <db-wg@ripe.net> wrote:

So I have now run across several ASNs in which the org is of type "OTHER" yet there is no sponsoring-org, could this please be clarified?

Example ASNs: AS200358, AS204842

If it is like I think it is, it must be that they have lost their sponsors but if that is the case, I would like to see a remark that is an "RIPE NCC managed value" saying something like "This ASN does not have any sponsor since YYYY-MM-DD".

I am not entirely sure on this but something to clarify what is going on.

Kind regards,
Cynthia Revström