Cable ISP Virgin Media Start UK Customer Trial of IPv6 Addresses

Cable broadband and TV operator Virgin Media has this week begun sending out “confidential” invites to what appears to be their first official customer trial of the IPv6 internet addressing standard, which until now has only been tested internally by the company’s staff (plus the occasional unexpected subscriber).

The trial itself is expected to last for 4 weeks and, as previously reported on ISPreview.co.uk (full details), it will harness the recently purchased Benu Networks’ IPv6 Dual-Stack (DS-Lite) solution in order to “provide a seamless migration to IPv6 in the UK“. This is being conducted alongside ARRIS, which of course makes Virgin Media’s Hub 3.0 (TG2492S/CE) router (no prizes for guessing that this trial is only for Hub 3.0 users).

On top of that there will be a few other caveats for those who join the new community trial. Firstly, modem mode will need to be disabled on your Hub 3.0. Secondly, Virgin’s Web Safe internet filter (Parental Controls) must also be switched off (we assume this won’t be necessary once the final solution is deployed) and the operator has warned that some native IPv4 kit may not work (well it is a trial, so expect bugs).

Expert users may also be nervous about Virgin Media’s decision to go with DS-Lite for their IPv6 solution, not least because it could involve some Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT) being used on older IPv4 internet addresses (i.e. IP address sharing). A good implementation of CGNAT will work for the vast majority of internet services but there could still be a few connectivity problems for certain apps (home servers, VPN, VoIP, online games etc.).

At this stage it’s just a short trial and the feedback might yet impact the operator’s plan for a national rollout. As usual we’ll be keeping a close eye on this, just as we did with BT and Sky Broadband’s own deployments of IPv6 sometime ago. Last week we also asked TalkTalk whether they had established a plan or timescale for IPv6 deployment but they gave us the cold shoulder, again.