Erik> At the moment (at 16:00 hrs UTC+0200 today) there are 20274 routed in the Erik> Internet. These nets are announced by 340 Autonomous Systems. The are Erik> currently 154 CIDR routes, which are announced by 43 Autonomous Systems. Erik> This means that 297 Autonomous Systems are not announcing any CIDR route Erik> yet. However, 70 Autonomous Systems consists of 1 net only, which means Erik> that a possible 227 ASs could start to CIDRize. I have a question. What, do you define, is the eligiblty for a network to obtain a AS number? What are those 70 networks using their own AS numbers for? I guess, they all are multi-homed and sticking AS numbers on those networks made everything easier. However, assigning different AS numbers to each of them consumes AS number space, right? Actually, we have 2 customers who are also connected to other NSPs so far. To make routing configuration easier, I assigned a "hidden" AS number to those networks and arranged never to anounce that hidden AS number to anywhere. I believe someone from Japan made proposal for reserving a "hidden" AS number for this purpose at the Seattle IETF. I would like to hear your opinions on this proposal because my third multi-homed network is connecting to us and I want to use this strategy again. Thanks Toshiya Asaba Internet Initiative Japan, Inc.