The revision of ICP-2 presents an opportunity to fix a structural weakness in Internet governance: the lack of guaranteed portability of number resources. Portability means that a network must have the unconditional right to move its IP addresses or ASNs from one Regional Internet Registry to another. This should not be optional, conditional, or discretionary; it must be a hard requirement embedded in ICP-2. Without portability, networks are effectively locked into the RIR they first registered with and are forced to bear the consequences of that RIR’s governance failures or operational breakdowns. That dependency creates systemic risk for the Internet itself.

Portability is fundamentally about autonomy and resilience. Networks must retain control over their resources independently of any single registry. Beyond that, portability introduces real accountability: if members can leave, RIRs are forced to maintain service quality, neutrality, and operational competence. A registry that performs poorly should not be able to hold its members hostage. In cases of severe failure, portability should function as an immediate, enforceable fallback at the NRO or ICANN level—similar to how DNS registrants can transfer domains away from a failing registry.

This is not about adding complexity to policy. It is about inserting a safety valve into a system that currently lacks one. Making portability mandatory would protect networks, reduce the damage caused by institutional failure, and align number governance with the Internet’s decentralized nature. A small change in ICP-2—treating portability as a non-negotiable right—would set a clear precedent: Internet governance should put networks first, preserve autonomy, and enforce accountability through structure, not promises.