When will IPv6 be available?

[#1]

I must say that I'm surprised plusnet haven't rolled ipv6 out yet. About 7 or 8 years ago when I was last a plusnet customer I was on the ipv6 trial and all worked great. Admittedly they only had a handful of logins for testing at the time but it worked well. Total shame if they still haven't implemented it yet.
Was looking forwards to seeing if ipv6 was finally available once my connection went live. Guess I'll just have to stick with a static IP for the time being.

[#2]

Mmm, the lack of IPv6, or even any signs of it ever happening, is pretty disappointing I must say.

I've been with Plusnet for a number of years and have been generally very happy with the service but this seems like huge omission. I work in IT and testing IPv6 connectivity is something I need to do regularly. Using an he.net tunnel works well but it's not the same as native v6.

I really don't want to change ISP but I'm now forced to consider it.

Steve

[#3]

Hi all, we don't have any news to share on this at present but rest assured we will be letting everyone know when we have some movement on this.

[#4]

The fact that you guys actually monitor the forums and respond is exactly why I don't want to leave.

What other ISP does that?

Thanks!

Steve

[#5]

The fact that even after all this time Plusnet still has nothing to report is troubling in itself.

[#6]

Why? No one else seems to be in a rush to implement it on a grand scale either https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/21/ipv6_growth_is_slowing_and_no_one_knows_why/

[#7]

That's not really a valid excuse - and I deliberately use the word excuse.

Note that it says the RATE of adoption is slowing, not that adoption has stopped or reversed. The likely cause is simply that the low hanging fruit is already done - the big guys like Google were done and dusted several years ago, and in the UK several of the volume ISPs like Sky and BT have had IPv6 for several years.

So it's probably more a case of being down to the less proactive section - ISPs like Plusnet - who seem to be dragging their feet on this. Oh, and outfits like my previous employer (a small ISP & IT services company) who had absolutely zero interest in it despite us techies talking about it with "I don't understand it so it isn't going to happen" manglement. We had an IPv6 allocation for one of the campus networks we managed, but I wasn't allowed to deploy it alongside the /23 IPv4 allocation 😞

[#8]

I agree with @SimonHobson, ipv6 adoption is a tidal wave in its inevitability. you just have to decide whether you want to get in early and float along, or be swept along, or get left behind and sink and die.

[#9]

The world is not the same any more as it was in 2005. 

I have real difficulties using Skype or any video chat with a number of people who are behind CGN on IPv4. They all have an IPv6 address, but I cannot connect on IPv6 because Plusnet is still stuck in the last decade. 

So if Plusnet offered IPv6, I would get much better video chats. 

If they do not, I will move to another provider. 

[#10]

Trouble is, I find Plusnet to offer a good balance of cost and features - except for IPv6 of course. When you look around (and at my last job I got to see many options through client support), the other options tend to have one or more downsides like :

No fixed address option <period> (StalkStalk consumer) or a stupidly high monthly charge for one fixed address (BT)

No option to use anything but their own router (Sky) - with a really REALLY [-Censored-] feature set and UI (Vodafone)

"Unlimited" usage that is anything but unlimited in that there's a FUP that's the same thing with a different label

Wonderful service and reputation (everything we want in an ISP, including IPv6 as standard*) but just too much extra cost

So yeah, changing ISP is tempting but far from ideal. But the way PN is playing it, those downsides of the alternatives are looking less insurmountable.

* Incidentally, I was looking at a hosting outfit not long ago and they gave you an IPv6 prefix as standard - and IPv4 address was an optional extra cost item.

[#11]

This really sucks. IPv4 address have been exhausted and PN still have not got IPv6 sorted. The people in charge of this need sacking. They have had enough time and a lot of the other ISPs have managed it.

[#12]

why? I guess because PlusNet sell on price and rely on people not knowing or caring?

maybe they lost all their good staff so there's nobody there to actually introduce new technology or ideas?

[#13]

I found out recently where some of their best staff have ended up: https://whitespacetechnology.net/about-us/

[#14]

When I spoke to PN Techincal support I got 2 responses about when IPv6 will be available:

• not for at least another year
• We have no time frame

I rang up twice just to make sure.

@jelv - I read your article and this definately falls into the category lets get more customers and forget about the ones we have.

[#15]

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@speculatrix wrote:

PlusNet sell on price and rely on people not knowing or caring?

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Indeed. For most users (and even a lot of network professionals), IPv6 just doesn't matter to them. As I've said before, the logical conclusion from what hasn't been said by them is that senior manglement have simply decided that the saving from ignoring IPv6 for the time being will be more than any lost revenues from people savvy enough to know and bothered enough to move.

There is always the possibility that they are simply waiting for natural refresh cycles to rid them of older network equipment that doesn't support a rollout of IPv6. That would be a variant of "don't want to spend more money than they'll get back through retained customers".