----- Original Message ----
From: Andreas Fink <afink@list.fink.org>

well, the Docsis 3.0 CMTS hardware is quite expensive,
if not saying dramatically expensive.

Then, the Docsis provisioning software is also quite expensive,

I guess you simply bought a dead end solution. Good hardware vendors supply IPv6
out of the box or at least with firmware upgrades. There's no reason to be
expensive

I haven't bought anything, I just know the Docsis technology market.
The provisioning software is generally not v6-ready, and the
hardware generally needs expensive upgrade.

Well, nobody said deploying IPv6 has to be free.
With open source software IPv6 is for sure added. So replace "needs expensive upgrade" with "choose right product". It's no exucse.

in DSL market, it's even worse: the Broadband Forum has not released yet any
ipv6 related document...

Who cares what the broadband forum says. We're in a IP world. There's 100's of
RFC's documenting IPv6. I personally run IPv6 natively over a SHDSL link and it
just works. As SHDSL shares the same basic ATM structure underneath like ADSL, I
don't see why anyone could NOT do IPv6 if he just tries hard enough. IPv6 is at
the end not that different to IPv4. Even with PPP it should work as PPP
encapsulates link frames, not IP packets so you can easily stuff IPv6 packets
into PPP.

The fact that Andreas or Tonnere is able to configure ipv6 at home does not
create a business case. Go look at your nearest Interdiscount or Fust shop --
how many of the consumer routers/firewalls/modems would support ipv6?
How many of the shop salesmen would ever hear such word?

There's two sides of the story, the ISP and the end user.
If the ISP doesnt supply IPv6, no one will ever ask Fust or Interdiscount for IPv6 capable devices.
And on top of my head I already know a few who are IPv6 ready. The FritzBox from AVM for example does  also support IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling. Apple Airport Express does also. Cisco does support it (which isnt really the same class).
But of course crappy dirt cheap devices like Zyxels don't. But no one want's to use them anyway.
The end user has a choice. The ISP limits his choice. The non IPv6 ISP's will simply loose in the long term as IPv6 awareness has raised in 2008 drastically.

Who cares what the broadband forum says.

any ISP with more than few thousand xDSL customers does. You know, they are lazy
enough to build something that does not have a standard supported by vendor majority.

Besides, even if they start offering v6 today, users will not buy it, because of that
Interdiscount/Fust issue. Also most windows PCs and home servers would need some
tuning for v6.

Sorry but "most windows PCs and home servers would need some tuning for v6" is just WRONG.
If you have a proper configured IPv6 router and you plug a MacOS X or Linux box, they get IPv6 addresses automatically and are connected. This is part of the beauty of IPv6 to have  autoconfiguration. I presume its the same in Windows Vista as its part of the standard.

So, give it another 4-5 years, it's coming, but not as fast as you'd like it to :)

I already waited 10 years. I won't have to wait for another 4-5. We have full IPv6 connectivity and we make extensive use of it.

Its also a management issue. in USA IPv6 is not that common simply because 
everyone can get tons of IPv4 addresses too easy (at least in the past).
But you gotta start sometime. And the time is now. Everyone supports IPv6 these
day and personally I would not choose a BGP4 uplink which does NOT suport IPv6
(we actually have thrown a IPv4 provider out just recently and replace it with a
IPv6 capable one).

it's purely an economy issue. Big ISPs will not invest into
something that the end-users don't require on massive scale. Those home end-users
who have no idea what BGP or PPP means. They just connect their computers into the
wall sockets and expect them to work.

Right and exactly for this, IPv6 is good. Plug and play is much more a reality than in IPv4.
I recently had to configure a Zyxel VDSL router and its a nightmare. Terms are unclear, too many weird buttons. NAT is getting into your way all the time. And once you configured it wrong and then configure it right (so all settings look exactly as they should) the dam thing doesnt work. Erase to factory defaults and reconfigure exactly the same settings made it work. Those kinds of problems are expensive for the ISP due to support, it makes an ISP look bad towards the customer. "Nothing works" will be the result. This is a cost to keep in mind. IPv6 is way way more "plug it in and it just works". And as it's been around since over 10 years, it is mature enough for deployment now.

Anyway, enough said. Users have a choice and they will pick.
Me as an end user will not pick anything not supporting native IPv6 unless I would have no other choice.