Delayed Again – Virgin Media’s Shifting IPv6 Adoption Goalposts

Hopes that cable operator Virgin Media might finally start to roll-out the Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) networking standard by the middle of 2017 have once again been dashed. The provider said that the transition would now begin “later this year“.

Broadband providers assign a public Internet Protocol (IP) address to your connection each time you go online, which is like the internet equivalent of a phone number. Today most addresses still use the IPv4 standard but there are no longer any spare numbers and so everybody is slowly adopting the replacement IPv6 standard (very slowly.. it’s been around since 1998).

For example, both Sky Broadband and BT are already deploying dual-stack networks so that both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, which are not directly compatible, can work seamlessly side-by-side; at least until the day comes when IPv4 can be completely switched off (this isn’t likely to happen for a very long time as too much hardware and software remains IPv4-only).

However a big question mark has continued to hang over the progress of IPv6 adoption by Virgin Media. Last November 2016 the cable operator told ISPreview.co.uk that they “plan to adopt IPv6 by the middle of 2017” (here) but the trail has since gone cold. At the start of this month some customers were also told the following.

A Virgin Media Support Agent said:

“Though we are IPV6 ready, Virgin Media have no firm plans or dates to deploy it across our network. We will likely make an announcement on this at any point when we have an official update but for now you’re stuck with IPV4 I’m sorry.”

The mixed messaging isn’t exactly helpful and so, with the end of June 2017 rapidly approaching, I decided to prod Virgin Media for a more official statement. The good news is that the roll-out is still expected to begin this year, although experience tells us that such statements are best taken with a pinch of salt.

A Virgin Media Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Virgin Media intends to start the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 later this year in line with the wider adoption of IPv6 across the internet. This deployment will be seamless to customers.”

At the time of writing the United Kingdom’s AS-number (Autonomous System Number) tracker for IPv6 usage (here) estimates that they (listed as NTL) have about 1,118 connections on IPv6, which is double what it was last year but the figure remains indicative of a limited closed service trial or use by internal networks only.

Mind you Virgin Media are by no means the only major ISP to be lagging behind on the IPv6 adoption front, with other big examples including TalkTalk and KCOM.

Separately we also asked for an update on the Intel Puma 6 latency fix for Virgin Media’s SuperHub 3 (aka – Hub 3.0) routers and were told that the field trials of a new firmware update are due to “begin shortly“. Sadly we don’t know any more than that.