UK ISP Zen Internet Expands IPv6 Trial to Entire Customer Base

Rochdale ISP Zen Internet has announced that their previously limited trial of Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6), which is designed to replace the old IPv4 Internet addressing standard, is now being opened up to all of their 95,000 or so broadband subscribers.

Most Internet providers still assign an IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) address to your connection each time you go online (e.g. 84.123.12.5 – yours will have a different number). In many ways it’s the Internet equivalent of a phone number, which helps your hardware and software to communicate with remote servers.

Sadly the current standard has run out of addresses and this could eventually make it impossible for ISPs to add new customers without upgrading to IPv6 (related addresses look a bit like this: 2001:cdba::2257:9652) or sharing IPv4 addresses between several users; the latter of which has a number of potential security and performance issues.

A good number of smaller ISPs have already adopted IPv6 (e.g. AAISP, Merula, Aquiss etc.) and more recently we’ve also seen some of the bigger providers, such as Sky Broadband, conducting significant trials. Meanwhile Zen Internet recently introduced a limited trial for their partners, although apparently the demand from customers has been so huge that they’ve expanded it early

Zen’s IPv6 Phase Two Trial Statement

Only last week we launched a trial of IPv6 technology for our Partners. The response we received was overwhelming; endless numbers of customers wanting to get involved so they too can start to benefit from everything it offers. You got in touch; we listened. From today, our entire customer base are welcome to sign up to our IPv6 trial.

Visit: http://love.zen.co.uk/l/70492/2015-08-04/h8pww

Apparently those who sign-up have been told to expect a response within the next few days.