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%.

CoriolisTelecom IPv6 Deployment

You can view 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 Coriolis Telecom and the other networks that make up the ranks of World IPv6 Launch participants, please register your network for measurement.

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:

• Verizon Wireless (AS6167, AS22394)
• T-Mobile USA (AS21928)
• Sprint Wireless (AS3651, AS10507)
• AT&T Wireless (AS20057)

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.

It’s great to see major network operators continue to deploy IPv6 and continue to 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 couple of new entrants that I’d like to highlight in this short post.

ER-Telecom is a Russian telecommunications holding company providing a wide range of services for individuals and corporations. The company is active mainly in the South and Central regions of European Russia. This month’s IPv6 network operator measurements show ER-Telecom ranked 49th with an IPv6 deployment percentage of 10.34%.

Bell Mobility is a Canadian LTE and HSPA+ based wireless provider which sells wireless services across Canada. Bell Mobility and its affiliates combined have over 8 million subscribers as of the end of Q3 2016, making it Canada’s third largest wireless carrier. This month’s IPv6 network operator measurements show Bell Mobility ranked 73rd with an IPv6 deployment percentage of 17.54%.

You can view 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 ER-Telecom, Bell Mobility and the other networks that make up the ranks of World IPv6 Launch participants, please register your network for measurement.

I always like to highlight new operators turning up IPv6 in these regular posts and it’s great that I can do that again this month. VNPT registered with World IPv6 Launch in May of this year and are now growing their deployment rapidly (latest measurements show more than 4% IPv6 deployment). Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, commonly abbreviated as VNPT, is a telecommunications company, owned by the Vietnamese government, and the national post office of Vietnam. VNPT owns Vinaphone, one of the three largest mobile network operators in Vietnam.

You can view 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 VNPT and the other networks that make up the ranks of World IPv6 Launch participants, please register your network for measurement.

On this, the fifth anniversary of World IPv6 Launch, we wish all our readers a Happy Launchiversary 2017!. It really is staggering how far IPv6 deployment has progressed in five years. In mid-2012, Google measured less than 1% of users accessing their services over IPv6. Today that figure is getting close to 20%. Since World IPv6 Launch, several major operators are now delivering the majority of traffic from major content sources like Google, Akamai and others over IPv6. Individual operators, like T-Mobile USA, have deployed IPv6-only networks for their subscribers.

How much progress have we made in the five years since World IPv6 Launch? All the details are included in a new landmark report from the Internet Society. While you download the report, here are the highlights:

✦  IPv6 has increased 3000% since the beginning of World IPv6 Launch five years ago.

✦  Deployment is occurring around the globe: Measurements show 37 countries exceed 5% of traffic is IPv6 to major content providers.

✦  Over 25% of the Alexa Top 1000 websites are reachable using IPv6.

✦  Some networks are now IPv6-only internally (e.g. JPNE, T-Mobile USA, SoftBank), and some major networks are now majority-IPv6 (e.g. RelianceJIO, Verizon Wireless, SkyBroadcasting, XS4ALL).

✦  Some organizations are in the process of turning off IPv4 within their networks and/or data centers to reduce network complexity and cost (e.g. T-Mobile, Facebook, LinkedIn).

✦  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 Program.

IPv6 use is set to continue growing for the rest of this year and beyond as more operators start and grow their deployments around the world, and new content and hosting providers enable IPv6 for their customers.

We will continue to publish monthly measurements of IPv6 deployment as the Launch continues around the world. If you’re a network operator deploying IPv6 and would like to join the other networks that make up the ranks of World IPv6 Launch participants, please register your network for measurement.