AS12779 ITGATE IT.Gate S.p.A.

2,097 observed BGP neighbours — the most of any network in this sweep by a factor of four.

What it's used for

• An Italian transit and hosting network. 47,104 addresses across 23 IPv4 prefixes, six IPv6 prefixes, and 2,097 observed BGP neighbours.

Notable

• The largest blocks are 213.212.128.0/18, 212.110.32.0/19 and 213.254.0.0/19.
• Its own netnames span IT-ITGATE-990610, IT-ITGATE-19991105, IT-ITGATE-20000412, IT-ITGATE-20060920 and IT-ITGATE-20140528.
• Other blocks are registered to MOVIMATICA Srl (IT-RETEITALY-20070410) and Eurologon Srl (IT-EUROLOGON-20080616, IT-EUROLOGON-20150428).
• Reverse names embed the address backwards: 213.254.8.0 answers as 0.8.254.213.static.dsl.itgate.net.

Interesting

• Over two thousand neighbours puts this network in a different category from everything around it. A count that high is not peering in the ordinary sense; it is a network that other people's networks connect through, which is what a national transit provider looks like when its customers each run their own AS.
• Two netname formats sit in the same holder's records: 990610 uses a two-digit year, while 19991105, five months later, uses four. The registry changed convention mid-stream and never rewrote what came before, so one company's own paperwork preserves the moment it happened.
• Blocks registered to unrelated Italian companies are announced from here under their own names and dates. A transit network's inventory is partly its customers', and the registry is where the distinction survives.