Tech News – BT Announce IPv6 Dates
BT have been testing IPv6 in specific areas of the UK and have this week announced that by the end of 2016 their whole network will be able to use the IPv6 system.
Over the next 12 months there will likely be press coverage on this and your service provider will contact you to inform you of any hardware changes required if any. On this post I’ll attempt to break down what this all means.
What is this?
Everyone connected to the internet has an IP address. For example if you type the words “my ip” into Google you will see the address that your internet service provider has allocated you. The system for allocating these unique numbers is known as IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4).
What’s wrong with IPv4?
IPv4 allows over 4 billion addresses worldwide, but because of the way these are allocated geographically, some countries have ran out. America has ran out of IPv4 addresses. The UK is on the verge of running out.
What is IPv6
This is not a new technology. In fact the device that you are reading this on (computer, tablet, phone) is already capable of the switch to IPv6.
IPv6 is the protocol that will replace IPv4 because the address numbering is (practically) unlimited. There are many other technical benifits with IPv6 such as having no checksum and better encoding. 
Comparison
In the early 1990’s telephone numbers changed. Troon used to have 0292. Kilmarnock was 0563. By adding an extra 1 it solved the problem of number exhaustion.
IPv4 vs IPv6 is on a massively different scale.
What Do I Need To Do?
Nothing for now. If you are using an old router, you may need to update it. When the roll-out begins, your service provider will advise you about enabling IPv6 on your computer.
Why Aren’t We Using This Already?
Old computers were ready for this. Routers are preconfigured already. What’s the delay? There are huge complications for service providers running both protocols simultaneously. The significance of BT announcing that the switch will be complete by the end of 2016 means that most other servers will follow suit as most use the BT infrastructure to get the line to your door.
Links on this:
BBC: BT sets date for IPv6 network conversion
BT: IPv4 addresses are running out.