Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Nearly a decade has passed since broadband provider Virgin Media (VMO2) first informed ISPreview that they planned to adopt the Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) addressing standard (here) and we’re still waiting. The situation around mobile operator O2 is similar, with both still relying primarily on IPv4 addresses. But there are signs of a change in the air data packets.
Internet protocol addresses (IP) help connect you and your devices or software with others around the online world – like an ID number for your connection. Unfortunately, the IPv4 address space could only handle 4.294 billion addresses and that supply has long since been exhausted (except for the resale of existing address pools), which means that in the future ISPs will need to use the new IPv6 standard in order to continue adding new connections without compromise (e.g. IP address sharing / CGNAT is a compromise that can cause problems).
Sadly, the longer form IPv6 addresses are not directly compatible with older IPv4 addresses and so the two usually need to be run side-by-side (i.e. at least until the vast majority of the world has enabled IPv6). The good news is that there are various ways to resolve this challenge, but some providers have been dragging their feet for much longer than others, with Virgin Media and O2 being two of those holdouts.