According to research conducted by thinkbroadband.com, there is significant confusion amongst broadband providers not only as to whether they support IPv6 but also as to what it actually is. Surprising, when you consider that IPv6 has been available since 1998 and much written about - including here on DaniWeb for many years now. Not surprising, when you consider that only a handful of niche broadband service providers actually support it at the moment.

That didn't stop several of the sales teams at broadband providers from incorrectly claiming to be supporting it though, while others responded with such remarks as "is it Internet Explorer 6" and "Never been asked, I'm just looking at Wikipedia right now". If that were not bad enough, one broadband ISP replied to the question of IPv6 support with "we support IP version 5" despite this never having been an official protocol (we're currently on IPv4) and the absolute classic which would be funnier if it were not so sad of “is that a TV channel?”

Sebastien Lahtinen, co-founder of thinkbroadband.com, says "there is clearly a lot of confusion about IPv6 within the sales and support teams working for many service providers. We found that very few operators had heard about IPv6. The fact is that ISPs should be preparing their customer support teams for queries about IPv6 as consumers become more aware of it and begin to look into how it is going to affect them".

You might think that ISPs would at least be running IPv6 trials in preparation for the inevitable.