Major operators all around the world are now delivering the majority of traffic from major content sources like Google, Akamai, Facebook and others over IPv6. Individual operators, like T-Mobile USA, have deployed IPv6-only networks for their subscribers.
Many of the major network operators in the U.S., Europe and Asia have massively deployed IPv6. For example, in the U.S. T-Mobile has 93 percent, in India Reliance Jio has 87 percent, in the U.K. British Sky Broadcasting has 86 percent and in Belgium VOO has 73 percent IPv6 deployment.
Nearly half a billion people use IPv6 among just the top 15 ISPs combined. India’s Reliance Jio has the most IPv6 users with 237 million, the United States’ Comcast is number two with 36 million and the United States’ AT&T is third with 30 million. Reliance Jio activated over 200 million subscribers with IPv6 connectivity in just nine months, between September 2016 and June 2017.
IPv6 deployment is global, and the top 10 countries using the new protocol are Belgium, Greece, Germany, the U.S., Uruguay, India, Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia and Brazil. Belgium was the first country in the world where the majority of connections to IPv6-capable content providers used IPv6.
80 percent of smartphones in the US on the major cellular network operators (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) use IPv6. Less than three years ago this was under 40 percent.
In 2012, less than one in a hundred connections to Google services used IPv6. Today that number is nearly one in four.
Many of the largest Internet content providers and content delivery networks provide IPv6 service by default. 28 percent of the Alexa Top 1000 websites are IPv6-enabled, including large streaming video services.
The Internet Society’s core recommendations are to: (a) start now if you haven’t already, (b) use established RFP requirements like RIPE-554: Requirements for IPv6 in ICT Equipment, and (c) take advantage of existing IPv6 deployment information including the Internet Society’s Deploy360 Programme.
We just published this month’s IPv6 network operator measurements and they include an exciting new entrant that I’d like to highlight here.
Chunghwa Telecom (Mobile), AS17421, is the largest telecommunications company in Taiwan and the incumbent mobile, PSTN and broadband carrier there. It has its headquarters in Zhongzheng District, Taipei on the remains of the old Taipei prison. This month’s IPv6 network operator measurements show Chunghwa Telecom (Mobile) ranked 26th with a rapidly growing IPv6 deployment percentage of 21%.
During the recent IETF meeting in London, UK, Erik Nygren of Akamai gave a fascinating talk about IPv6 Trends which is well worth watching if you’re interested in where we’re at with IPv6 deployment, and where to focus attention going forward. As Erik mentions at the start of his presentation, Akamai are one of our valued data sources for World IPv6 Launch measurements.
Erik’s presentation makes it clear that while there are lots of networks with IPv6 deployment well underway, there still remains a great deal of work to do. In that light it’s great to see major network operators continue to deploy IPv6 and register with World IPv6 Launch to have public acknowledgement of the scale and scope of their efforts. This month’s IPv6 network operator measurements include a recent sign-up that I’d like to highlight here.
Coriolis Telecom is a French virtual network operator providing mobile, ADSL and fibre services to individuals and corporations across France. This month’s IPv6 network operator measurements show Coriolis ranked 163rd with a rapidly growing IPv6 deployment percentage of 44%.
In an earlier post in mid-2016 we highlighted the enormous progress that four major US mobile providers were making with IPv6 deployment by obtaining aggregated data from our measurement sources. The four networks in question:
At that time we were excited to note that the majority of traffic on these networks to major Internet content sources was now being transported over IPv6. As we start another year for IPv6 deployment and measurement we thought it would be timely to take another look at the state of IPv6 deployment in this segment.
The graph below shows the progress of the aggregate metric for IPv6 deployment in these four networks over the last two years.
This is really striking and consistent progress since we last reviewed the situation, and the growth of IPv6 deployment in 2018 across all network types and geographies is showing no signs of abating. Check out the full listing of newly updated IPv6 network operator measurements for this month.
If you’re a network operator deploying IPv6 and would like to join these cellular networks and the other networks that make up the ranks of World IPv6 Launch participants, please register your network for measurement.
