IPv6 support on Virgin media
Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?
Forum Discussion
Is it due to a monopolistic type of company, or one that's just grown too large without learning to adapt quickly?
The loss of corporate customers might be a big deal, but once that becomes a issue they will adjust to that quickly I would imagine.
Bear in mind that up until perhaps a year or so ago, you could still find staff saying that it's not an issue as there's enough IPv4 addresses for customers to use - showing a huge lack of knowledge about what IPv6 is and the wider problems that it fixes.
It is laughable in that I just came back from the USA, where there's no cell service, broadband, nor dialup access any longer. Yet if I drive to the nearest public internet location I could get 2~ meg speeds WITH IPv6 connectivity. The headline speeds are what sells a product, and I fear that's why there's no view of it being important for Virgin to roll out IPv6.
Funding for things like the USO should be restricted to ISP's who deliver only full transit services. I don't see why public money should be going towards a incomplete service. BT and Sky have both had it now for about 4~ years, so perhaps they should push that in adverts, that might kick TT and VM into doing something.
VMCopperUser: I couldn't agree more. All of your points above are spot on.
Providing a full transit service is after all intrinsically part of net neutrality, despite the topic usually being more focused on neutrality of media services.
USA doesn't have our problem of a single provider in cable though, and huge american cable ISPs like Comcast have long provided IPv6. This prevents IPv6 deployment in the US from stagnating just because a single cable monopolist is dragging its feet, so today's US deployment stands at a healthy 36.7%.
In contrast, IPv6 deployment in the UK began to plateau once Sky and BT completed their IPv6 rollouts, and it's been bumping around the mid-20%'s ever since. That is unavoidable when one of our "Big Three" ISPs refuses to play its part. The knock-on effect on our industry and commerce has been nothing short of appalling, and I can understand UK companies' reticence --- why should they implement IPv6 with any urgency when the millions of regular folks on Virgin Media will not be able to reach their IPv6 servers?
VM is single-handedly responsible for this nationwide predicament, because residential ISPs create a dependency for all online businesses. I'm sure that the company knows this, but based on present evidence after nearly 10 years of detailed encouragement by their community, I have to conclude that they do not care that their choices prevent the nation from becoming leaders in a massively powerful enabling technology.