It is true that if:
- you have an CPE device which is designed to be upgraded (lots of early CPE devices weren't) - the CPE device has enough flash and RAM to run ipv6 - there is actually an ipv6 capable image for your CPE device, which assumes that your CPE device is still supported by its manufacturer - this ipv6 upgrade image is stable enough for production use - you are clued in enough to be able to upgrade your CPE device - your ISP can afford the time to support the reconfiguration of your device via its support mechanism,
... then IPv6 is a software upgrade.
If any of these is not true, you're way off into uncharted territory.
Uncharted territory? How does "you continue to use IPv4 as before" become uncharted territory. If a customer's network does not support IPv6 for any reason, including CPE, then they just keep on using IPv4 as they always have done. They can still get to IPv6 resources that have installed appropriate adapters such as 6to4 relays or ALGs on the content providers network. When the IPv6 Internet is required to sustain business growth because there are no unused IPv4 addresses available, all the IPv4 network infrastructure will continue to work as it had before.
how are you going to explain this to Joe and Jane Knucklehead ... what ipv6 is and how it could make their life any better, and that now they have to fork out EUR60 for another ADSL modem when their current one works just fine, thank you very much.
It's easier than most engineers think. Ordinary people spend EUR60 every day for things that they find useful, such as a meal in a restaurant, new clothes. Experience has shown that they are not unhappy to pay that much money to replace an Internet gateway as long as it is old and there is some perceived benefit in the new one. Since a new one will support IPv6, is likely to have field-upgradeable software, and probably includes a better firewall and management interface, it will be easy to get them to pay for it. --Michael Dillon