You’ve probably never heard of 6::UK – and that’s pretty much the problem.  They were an organisation that started in 2010 and funded by the Government to the tune of £20,000 to help and assist UK organisations and companies to make the switch to IPv6.  Today, the entire board of 6::UK resigned because they say the Government is basically not backing them.

The hopeless state of IPv6 in the UK is not really something any of us should be proud of, and none of the Big 6 consumer ISPs have rolled it out yet.  There are a few smaller ISPs that have, but in the main the ISPs that control 90-something% of the consumer market just haven’t rolled it out.  My view is that no-one basically wants to make the first move on this, because whoever does, costs themselves money, and it’s the classic chicken-and-egg problem.

Perhaps a nice bit of public embarrassment will get things moving, but based on previous experience, I predict not.  And as the article points out, the British Government should be doing something towards this, especially as other governments around the world are.  Before it’s too late and it costs everyone three times as much to roll it out in a panic rather than do it now.

Update: The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills did bother to comment on this eventually, the text of which you can read on the BBC News article.  I’m not sure if it adds anything, though.