An LOA is a Letter of Authorization. It is written permission from the holder of an IP prefix that lets you or your host announce that space. Registries and upstream networks ask for it because they need a clear paper trail before they accept a route. Without that letter, a new announcement can look like a hijack, so the request sits until the paperwork is complete.
What belongs on the letter
Your LOA needs the ASN that will originate the route, the exact prefix, and a technical contact who answers email. Incomplete letters sit in queues. Name the full prefix in CIDR form, not a shorthand from an earlier ticket. If you only control a sub-assignment, the letter must state that the sub-assignment is allowed. Do not announce more-specific routes than the letter covers, or other networks’ filters will reject the path.
RPKI and the LOA work together. After the letter is issued, create a matching ROA. A letter without a ROA can still be dropped by networks that enforce origin validation. A ROA alone is not how we release space we hold for you, and the letter does not replace a correct ROA in every queue.
What an LOA is not
An LOA is not a transfer of the prefix. It is not WHOIS data, and it is not a lease invoice. When the lease ends, the permission ends, and we reverse it. You cannot carve a smaller block and write your own letter to a third network unless the original LOA allows that. You also cannot move the prefix to another ASN on a letter you wrote yourself.
How to request an LOA from us
Send the ASN, the exact prefix, and who should appear as the technical contact. If you already have a BGP session up somewhere, say so, because two origins plus a new LOA is still two origins. We issue the letter the same business day on inventory we hold. After the letter, set the ROA, then check a looking glass. If a bank or transit desk later asks who authorized the announcement, that LOA is the answer you want already on file.
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