# Tier1

Published articles for Tier1.

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## History of Transit-Free (Tier 1) Networks

DevFeed: [History of Transit-Free (Tier 1) Networks](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/fascinating-history-of-transit-free-tier-1-networks-39782.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://anuragbhatia.com/post/2026/08/history-of-transit-free-networks/>)

Published: 2026-08-05T21:48:07Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Personal blog of Anurag Bhatia](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/personal-blog-of-anurag-bhatia.md>)

Topics: [Routing (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/routing.md>), [BGP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bgp.md>), [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networking.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>)

Tags: [as1](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/as1.md>), [as1239](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/as1239.md>), [as174](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/as174.md>), [as701](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/as701.md>), [bgp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bgp.md>), [history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history.md>), [networks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/networks.md>), [ripe-ris](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ripe-ris.md>), [routing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/routing.md>), [tier1](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tier1.md>), [transit](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/transit.md>)

### AI overview

The article examines the history of transit-free, or Tier 1, networks and tracks when autonomous systems became or ceased to be transit-free. It discusses historical evidence from BGP routing table dumps, RIPE RIS, Oregon Route Views, and related records.

### Source excerpt

I find the concept of transit-free / Tier 1 networks fascinating. These are networks which, by definition, are transit-free. They do not have any transit and can reach the entire routing table just through peering relationships. The importance of these networks has reduced over time as more and more peering happens directly between eyeball networks and content networks. But regardless, I always find it fascinating that these networks effectively define the full autonomy of the internet routing table. Together with the trust in 13 magical root DNS servers and these transit-free networks define what we call "the internet" today. I was once chatting with my friend and guru Martin Levy (now happily retired) about which networks were possibly transit-free when the internet started. He suggested that Wikipedia history on Tier 1 networks has many of them. The challenge with the Wikipedia page on Tier 1 networks is that the list of transit-free networks appears on 14 Nov 2005. This leaves a gap around which networks were transit-free before Nov 2005. Before Nov 2005, Nov 2005 and till now I had an email exchange with Mr Randy Bush and he kindly replied with some hints. According to him AS701/702/703/704 (UUnet / now Verizon), AS174 (PSI / now Cogent), AS1 (BBN) and AS1239 (Sprint) were transit-free networks before this period. The oldest routing dump on RIPE RIS is from 1999 but those dumps are very small and contain too few routes to establish anything. RIPE RRC00 from September 1999 has "view" files, which are essentially a "sh ip bgp dump" and the following month they seem to have moved to the MRT format. On Oregon Route Views, the oldest I can find is this dump from 08 Nov 1997. This brings me to a possible, although not perfect, method to document the history of transit-free networks. Timeline Method Before-Nov 1997 Assume AS1, AS1239, AS701 and AS174 to be transit-free and find who else was adjacent to all of them along with BGP routing table dumps Pre - Nov 2005 Use