Ok, rant time.
The final open IPv4 block of addresses was released from IANA which caused the final "triggered" release of the last 5 reserve IPv4 blocks. I think that most IT professionals new that this would happen, and most conservative estimates thought that it would occur in December of 2010. However, we wormed a few more months out of it and made it to February 2011.
Well, I have a static IP and run a business from it... So, I thought it was time to get my IPv6 address from Brighthouse / RoadRunner and start my transition. I called Brighthouse and asked for my shiny new 128-bit address. The tier1 rep didn't know what an "IPv" was, but he recognized the word "business" so he passed me up the chain.
After advancing in queue to the next tier of support, I explained that IPv4 was nearly depleted and I wanted to remain in contact with potential customers, so I thought it was time that I get an IPv6 address. The response I got was not that they were not prepared...it was that people are too dumb for such a long address and Brighthouse couldn't possibly support such a mass of stupid people. He explained that since 128-bits is greater than 32-bits, that customers wouldn't be able to understand the address. My experience here is that most non-IT persons do not understand IPv4 address space to begin with, so this argument is corporate fodder and ultimately makes no sense.
Well, anyway, I am not your average idiot [sic], so I pressed a bit further.
The rep further explained that "Brighthouse has plenty of IPv4 addresses remaining" and not to worry. I'm not quite sure Brighthouse has done a proper job of educating their employees. My concern is not that I will no longer be able to access Brighthouse services, but that as the rest of the world starts allocating IPv6 over the next few months, there will be no way for me to get to those networks and for those networks to get to me. Again their argument is corporate fodder meant to assure the uneducated.
After explaining the whole "there are other networks in the world" argument to the Brighthouse rep, he said that he was not aware of any immediate plan for IPv6 and it would probably still be a couple of years out. A couple of years?!? Depletion of the remaining 5 subnet block will occur in less than 6 months! This means IPv6 addresses will be allocated in their stead and that content will be inaccessible to IPv4 only users. I will have to turn customers away because Brighthouse failed to meet a known address exhaustion deadline!
Comcast started Dual-Stack deployment at the end of January. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch Comcast with your router, but really, Comcast? Brighthouse, TimeWarner, and RoadRunner, are you really going to let Comcast show you up?
Unallocated IPv4 Exhaustion: http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/
Test your IPv6 status: http://test-ipv6.com/
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