AS8895 — ISU Internet Services Unit ISU

Network type: education

AS8895 announces 5 IPv4 prefixes covering 99,840 addresses and 1 IPv6 prefixes.

About this network

ISU is the Internet Services Unit of KACST, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh. It is the LIR and network operator for Saudi Arabia's academic and research sector.

What it's used for

• Connectivity, hosting and cloud services for Saudi universities, research centres, laboratories and allied government bodies — today branded as the Maeen research and innovation network.
• Sampled rDNS inside its prefixes resolves to campus infrastructure: ns1.kku.edu.sa and sga.kku.edu.sa at King Khalid University in Abha.

Notable

• The inventory is large for an academic operator because ISU holds the legacy 212.138.0.0/16 alongside dozens of 212.26.x and 212.138.x /23s and /24s sub-assigned to individual institutions. An address here is institutional, not commercial hosting, and the specific university varies block by block.
• Classified education on the strength of who the space serves, not on KACST's status as a state research city.

Interesting

• ISU was created by Council of Ministers resolution in 1996 and switched on public Internet service for the Kingdom in December 1998, making this AS the descendant of Saudi Arabia's original national gateway. Its role has since narrowed to the academic and research community, with commercial service handled by the telcos.

This description is AI-generated, best-effort context — not authoritative, and provided without any guarantee of accuracy.

Announced prefixes

• 45.94.15.0/24
• 91.229.52.0/22
• 195.189.213.0/24
• 212.26.0.0/17
• 212.138.0.0/16
• 2001:1490::/32

Upstream networks

• AS3356 Level 3 Parent, LLC
• AS35753 Etihad Salam Telecom CJSC
• AS6453 TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC
• AS6762 TELECOM ITALIA SPARKLE S.p.A.
• AS11537 Internet2
• AS3257 GTT Communications Inc.
• AS39386 Saudi Telecom Company JSC
• AS20965 GEANT Vereniging
• AS293 ESnet
• AS202 Level 3 Parent, LLC

Downstream networks

• AS50517 King Saud University
• AS56714 Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University
• AS208520 King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology

Adjacent networks

• AS3356 Level 3 Parent, LLC
• AS35753 Etihad Salam Telecom CJSC
• AS6453 TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC
• AS6762 TELECOM ITALIA SPARKLE S.p.A.
• AS50517 King Saud University
• AS11537 Internet2
• AS3257 GTT Communications Inc.
• AS39386 Saudi Telecom Company JSC
• AS56714 Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University
• AS20965 GEANT Vereniging
• AS293 ESnet
• AS208520 King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology
• AS202 Level 3 Parent, LLC

Internet exchanges

• SAIX Saudi Arabia Riyadh — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia