AS9680 HINETUSA HiNet Service Center in U.S.A

AS9680 (HINETUSA) is the HiNet Service Center in the U.S.A., registered to the Data Communication Business Group of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. — Taiwan's largest integrated telecom operator and the parent of the HiNet ISP brand. It is the US-facing arm of that network, distinct from HiNet's main Taiwanese AS.

What it's used for

The routing evidence describes a peering and presence AS rather than a service network. RIS sees exactly 1 IPv4 prefix carrying 4,096 addresses (202.39.80.0/20), no IPv6, and 43 observed BGP neighbours. That ratio is the point: a network with a single /20 to its name but four dozen BGP adjacencies is not an access network and is not a hosting farm. It is a carrier's overseas point of presence, exchanging routes at US interconnection points on behalf of the parent backbone and terminating the US-side services of Chunghwa's international business.

Reverse DNS on the sampled addresses resolves under hinet-ip.hinet.net, HiNet's generic assignment naming, so the space is used as ordinary HiNet-assigned addressing rather than being branded separately for a US product.

Notable

• Do not confuse this with HiNet's main Taiwanese eyeball network, which is a different and vastly larger AS. AS9680's role is US interconnection and service presence, not subscriber access.
• The single /20 has not grown: the AS exists for its peering position, not for the address space it holds.