When will PlusNet begin supporting IPV6?

[#1]

As I understand it, shortage of IPv4 address is most acute in Asia due to historical allocation of IPv4 netblocks (i.e. IPv4 address ranges).

Asian countries are therefore most in need of widespread IPv6 adoption, as they are going to benefit most from IPv6 only networks - and are already moving in this direction (https://blog.apnic.net/2019/02/27/the-growth-of-ipv6-in-the-asia-pacific-region/#:~:text=IPv6%20was%....). However, this requires IPv6 capable networks elsewhere - to maintain interoperability.

Delay in parts of the world where this isn't seen as a priority may not be immediately apparent to us, but there is a need. Network address translation is a fix, of sorts, but IPv6 is the longer term direction that we should be heading in and is being held back by slow adopters.

I hope this explains my previous comment!

[#2]

@s12erm It kind of does, and long-term it will happen, but a UK ISP not using IPV6 does not directly affect Asian users as such.

[#3]

No, not directly, it won't. I agree, it won't make any difference to the many IPv4 sites that would remain out there.

However, PlusNet should get their house in order. The routers already support the technology and BT already provide it - so the network can't be far off.

PlusNet have been talking about rolling it out but it seems to have stalled, from what I can gather, because of a reluctance to compete with BT's "premium" offering that provides IPv6. This is a bit frustrating and the part that I consider makes PlusNet antisocial to other internet users.

I  very much doubt many users would leave PlusNet over this single factor - the lower end of the market is mainly focused on price. However, many other cheap ISPs do support IPv6 - notably Sky.

[#4]

I think most customers would prefer an FTTP or G Fast offering ahead of IPv6.
Personally I'd prefer them to fix support for customers before support for IPv6.

[#5]

That 'reluctance' is actually down to BT, as the parent company, not wanting/allowing PN to roll out IPV6 - i.e. a commercial decision by the ultimate controlling organisation.

[#6]

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@dvorak wrote:
I think most customers would prefer an FTTP or G Fast offering ahead of IPv6.
Personally I'd prefer them to fix support for customers before support for IPv6.

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Exactly, @dvorak 

[#7]

I don't think it's a simple as a choice between G.Fast or IPv6. As you say, it seems to me that, despite pilot work and hardware that can do it, the IPv6 upgrades have been held back due to business decisions by BT - although this is not confirmed.

I suspect, given the completed pilot work and that it's mostly software, IPv6 would not require the level of hardware upgrades and investment that G.Fast or other technologies require.

[#8]

But in some ways it is, there's a only so much time / resource available - business (BT) priority determines the order of things.
G Fast etc. are services provided by their supplied so should be even easier to implement as it's just another package type.

[#9]

@dvorak It looks like we agree on a lot of things, although perhaps not the finer detail about what should be more of a priority. Can we agree that IPv6 is definitely not fixed on PlusNet and that this post doesn't yet offer a satisfactory fix? Please can you update the status to reflect this.

For me, a satisfactory fix that would be suitable to be marked as an "Accepted Fix" would be a detailed post from a PlusNet employee with official knowledge of up to date plans for IPv6 - and a "no plans for the foreseeable future" would still be reasonable.

Let's hope we get G.fast and IPv6 at some point in the future (and I'm not going to specify which first - because I would also like both).

[#10]

I'd also like to hear the response from a PlusNet employee, thank you.

This isn't fixed and shouldn't be closed.

[#11]

@misterbreen  It isn't - the 'fix' has been removed.

[#12]

Wow wow nice shooting there tex... But you cannot treat customers like that.

If you don't know the answer just say " I don't have the answer "

YOu can always refer the question to your boss.

[#13]

@mrbronz Not sure who you are referring to but there has been no post from a Plusnet employee on this thread. Moderators are customers who know nothing of Plusnet's business plans.

[#14]

The query was replied to and accepted.

In my opinion, this decision shows an antisocial attitude to other net users - especially those within Asia.

I think most customers would prefer an FTTP or G Fast offering ahead of IPv6.
Personally I'd prefer them to fix support for customers before support for IPv6. 

This does make it rather clear you guys don't know what you're talking about, and are simply speculating garbage.

There is a growing need for IPv6. It's frustrating using tunnelbrokers for something the ISP should implement. Plusnet's equipment is more or less on-par with BT nowadays as they're slowly merging ASN's. There's no technical reason for them not to offer this.

Plusnet's response is poor, and a rando marking this as solved clearly doesn't help.

[#15]

Most users don't understand what IPv6 is. In fact, many of the IT staff within my (fairly large) employer don't understand what IPv6 is. However, that doesn't mean that it isn't important or necessary.

In my experience, there are currently few IPv6 only websites that UK users would want to access, although I would be interested to hear what sites you have had problems with. In my opinion, this isn't because of a lack of need for IPv6 but mostly because many UK ISPs have been so slow to adopt.

PlusNet's slow implementation of IPv6 is an embarrasment (but sadly not an outlier in the UK). I agree that, in this day and age, it should be reasonable to assume that IPv6 connectivity is provided as a standard feature.

Please can someone from PlusNet provide an update - we are now over 12 months since any sort of official response.