AS855

AS855 (CANET-ASN-4) is an actively routed Bell Canada access/eyeball ASN, registered under ARIN since 1990-08-07, that currently announces 825 IPv4 and 6 IPv6 prefixes with no notable public abuse signal found in the sources this pass could reach as of August 2026.

The ARIN registrant on file is Bell Canada (org handle LINX, Ottawa, ON), while PeeringDB carries the network under the name "Bell Aliant Inc." (aka Aliant), reflecting Bell's Atlantic-Canada DSL/FibreOp residential heritage. bgp.tools classifies it as an eyeball network, ranking it #7 in Canada for both estimated eyeballs and originated IPv4 space.

Routing scale is substantial: CAIDA AS Rank places it #971 globally, with a customer cone of 38 ASNs / 969 prefixes / roughly 2.17M addresses and an AS degree of 30 customers, 3 peers, and 4 providers. BGP-path-derived adjacency (not a confirmed contractual list) shows AS1299, AS3356, AS3257, AS577, and AS6939 as apparent upstreams; individual peer ASNs were not separately enumerated by any source consulted. bgp.tools reports 2 IX memberships without naming them; PeeringDB shows Equinix Chicago and Equinix New York, both 10G, no route-server peering, general policy Restrictive.

RPKI coverage looks broad: a RIPEstat sample of 5 of 831 announced prefixes validated as RPKI-valid under AS855, with the same blocks explicitly marked invalid_asn under sibling ASN AS577 — i.e. AS577 is not an authorized origin for AS855's space. bgp.he.net separately reports roughly 785 of ~828 counted prefixes carrying a valid RPKI certificate, corroborating majority-but-not-universal coverage.

Corporately, Bell Aliant Inc. was formed in 1999, traded separately on the TSX as an income trust from 2006–2014, and was absorbed into Bell Canada after BCE completed a tender offer and delisted it on 2014-10-31; "Bell Aliant" now persists only as a regional consumer brand, consistent with the current ARIN registrant reading "Bell Canada" rather than a standalone Bell Aliant entity.

Exposure

Large, actively announced eyeball network (825 IPv4 / 6 IPv6 prefixes, ~1.74M IPv4 addresses estimated); scale alone makes it a routine target for abuse-desk complaints typical of consumer-broadband ASNs, though no specific incident was found — bgp.he.net (2026-08-08).

RPKI posture

Majority of a small validation sample (5/5 checked) returned RPKI-valid, and sibling ASN AS577 is explicitly excluded as a valid origin for the same prefixes, indicating deliberate ROA hygiene — stat.ripe.net/AS855 (2026-08-08).

NANOG history

No notable public abuse or security discussion found in NANOG mailing-list archives for AS855 as of an August 2026 search; reviewed threads were operational (customer statistics, DNS troubleshooting) — mail-archive.com/nanog archive search.

Abuse contact

ARIN records a business/consumer split for abuse reports on this ASN — business issues to abuse@bellnexxia.net, consumer issues to abuse@sympatico.ca (RDAP ABUSE1127-ARIN, vCard kind: group).

Threat-feed coverage

Unknown — AbuseIPDB, Spamhaus, Talos Intelligence, and VirusTotal could not be queried this pass (HTTP 403/404 responses and a non-renderable VirusTotal SPA); this is an access limitation, not a confirmed clean result, and should not be read as equivalent to a completed negative.

Operator

Bell Canada (ARIN registrant, org handle LINX); PeeringDB network name "Bell Aliant Inc." (aka Aliant), a regional ISP brand [Confirmed] — rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/855, peeringdb.com/net/1971

Country / RIR

CA, ARIN [Confirmed] — rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/855, stat.ripe.net/AS855 (abuse-contact-finder: authoritative_rir=arin)

Allocated

1990-08-07 (ARIN RDAP autnum top-level registration event, handle AS855; corroborated by bgp.tools's independent "Registered on 7 Aug 1990" display); last changed 2017-09-22 [Confirmed] — rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/855, bgp.tools/as/855

Org status

Bell Aliant Inc. formed 1999; separately TSX-listed as an income trust 2006–2014; BCE completed a tender offer and delisted it 2014-10-31; wound up and absorbed into Bell Canada, which continues to use "Bell Aliant" as a regional brand

[Likely] — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Aliant, rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/855

Contacts

RIPEstat abuse-contact-finder returns abuse@bell.ca, abuse@bellnexxia.net, abuse@sympatico.ca. RDAP ABUSE1127-ARIN (role abuse; vCard kind: group) — fn "Abuse", org Bell Canada, carrying all three addresses above; ARIN's registration comment specifies a business/consumer split (business abuse to abuse@bellnexxia.net, consumer abuse to abuse@sympatico.ca). Also on record, all vCard kind: group: SYSAD-ARIN (administrative) — ip.admin@bell.ca, ip_prov@bell.ca, +1-888-788-2355; IRRAD-ARIN (routing POC) — irr-admin@bell.ca; ANR1-ARIN (technical, "Automated Network Resolution") — bwnteam@bell.ca, +1-877-877-2426; ABAI1-ARIN (abuse; kind: group) — abuse@bell.ca, abuse@bellnexxia.net; SOCEV-ARIN (technical; kind: group) — bellsoc@bell.ca, IP.admin@bell.ca, +1-888-570-8125 (ARIN marks this POC "Unvalidated" — no response since 2025-02-12). Every POC published here is a group-kind role/function mailbox; the record also carries one individual-kind technical POC (handle DHANJ1-ARIN) whose contact detail is withheld per policy

[Confirmed] — rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/855, stat.ripe.net/AS855 (abuse-contact-finder)

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

NANOG archives show no notable abuse/security discussion as of an August 2026 search [Confirmed]; AbuseIPDB/Spamhaus/Talos/VirusTotal status Unknown — could not be queried this pass due to access limits (403/404/non-renderable page)

Network & routing

Network type

Cable/DSL/ISP, regional eyeball/residential access network (Bell Aliant/FibreOp Atlantic-Canada heritage) [Confirmed] — peeringdb.com/api/net?asn=855&depth=2, bgp.tools/as/855

Size

825 IPv4 prefixes / ~1,740,544 IPv4 addresses (computed) and 6 IPv6 prefixes; RIPEstat's own announced_prefix_count field reads 831 (825+6), matching exactly [Confirmed for RIPEstat figures; Likely as the precise current total given normal cross-source variance vs. bgp.he.net and bgp.tools] — stat.ripe.net/data/announced-prefixes/data.json?resource=855, bgp.he.net/AS855, bgp.tools/as/855

Routing/peering

CAIDA AS Rank 971 globally; customer cone 38 ASNs / 969 prefixes / ~2,170,880 addresses; AS degree 37 total (30 customer, 3 peer, 4 provider). Apparent upstreams by BGP-path adjacency: AS1299, AS3356, AS3257, AS577 (sibling), AS6939 — not a confirmed contractual list. IX presence: 2 memberships per bgp.tools (unnamed); PeeringDB lists Equinix Chicago and Equinix New York, 10G each, policy Restrictive [Confirmed for CAIDA metrics; Likely for upstream roles] — asrank.caida.org, bgp.he.net/AS855, bgp.tools/as/855, peeringdb.com/net/1971

RPKI

Sample-validated — 5 of 831 announced prefixes checked via RIPEstat all returned RPKI-valid under AS855, with the same blocks marked invalid_asn under sibling AS577; bgp.he.net separately reports ~785 of ~828 prefixes with a valid RPKI cert [Confirmed for the sample; Likely for full-set coverage] — stat.ripe.net/AS855, bgp.he.net/AS855

Notable usage

Eyeball/residential access ISP; bgp.tools ranks it #7 in Canada for both estimated eyeballs and originated IPv4 space; carries Bell's Atlantic-Canada Bell Aliant/FibreOp residential footprint [Likely] — bgp.tools/as/855

Related ASNs

AS577 (Bell Canada's other/primary ASN) — appears as both a routing adjacency and as an explicitly invalid ROA origin for AS855's own prefix blocks, confirming they are sibling but non-interchangeable ASNs [Confirmed] — stat.ripe.net/AS855, bgp.he.net/AS855

Analyst note

Long-lived, actively routed Bell Canada eyeball ASN under ARIN since 1990; PeeringDB still lists it under its historical "Bell Aliant" brand. Core routing/registry facts (RDAP dates, RIPEstat prefix counts, CAIDA rank/cone) are cross-corroborated and Confirmed; threat-feed abuse status is genuinely Unknown due to tooling access limits this pass, not a confirmed clean result — treat as a re-check candidate rather than a settled negative.