Entanet, the wholesale communications provider, ranks in the top 12 percent of UK ISPs with RIPE’s four star rating for IPv6 readiness on the Regional Internet Registry’s website.
Entanet is listed amongst only 15 ISPs categorised as ‘large’ that have been awarded four-star status. Only nine of these (excluding Entanet) are registered in the UK.
Alarmingly, the statistics also reveal the fact that 56 percent of UK ISPs have no IPv6 compatibility at all, based on analysis of 863 LIRs (Local Internet Registries). This is an issue that Entanet has repeatedly warned against, calling on UK ISPs to adopt IPv6 more urgently as the UK speeds towards the complete consumption of any remaining IPv4 addresses.
In previous articles on its opinion website (http://opinion.enta.net), the company has argued that, in order to utilise IPv6 an ISP’s network must be able to support the new addresses. This often requires investment in new and expensive equipment. Despite this being a cost that every network operator is going to have to bare eventually, as complete consumption of IPv4 is inevitable, many are using lack of customer demand for IPv6 as their excuse for putting off this investment. Entanet was an early adopter of IPv6 and has continued to promote the importance of IPv6 compatibility to its channel of reseller partners. “We actively encourage resellers and ISPs to provide us with their feedback regarding their experiences of IPv6” states Entanet’s Head of Marketing, Darren Farnden. “We would like to know if resellers are successfully using IPv6 and would encourage them to share their positive and negative experiences with us so that we can aim to improve our support for IPv6. Have you had any hardware compatibility or configuration issues for example?”