Global adoption rates of IPv6 saw a bit of a surge in the second half of last year due to a growth in the roll out of the Internet protocol by major network operators in Japan and several European countries.
Larger networks in these countries have been rolling out IPv6, with a few of them doubling their deployment over the course of the last six months of last year, according to a report on the online technology site NetworkComputing.com by Erik Nygren, chief architect U.S.-based Internet content delivery network Akamai Technologies Inc.
He said Akamai saw IPv6 adoption rates double in the last six months.
He also said desktop and laptop operating systems saw a significant global increase due in part to growing IPv6 deployments in some large broadband networks. More than five per cent of global request to dual-stacked sites from many of the recent operating systems are made over IPv6. One exception is Apple’s Mac OS X system which alternates between IPv6 and the older IPv4.
IPv6 usage in mobile devices did not register a dramatic growth in the last six months because there is already a high degree of IPv6 usage in the market.
Among the network providers with highest IPv6 requests as of December 2013 were:
- Chubu Telecom of Japan, from 20.8 per cent in June to 32.7 per cent December
- Brutele of Belgium, from 29.7 in June to 25.2 per cent in December
- XS4ALL, of Netherlands, from 15.4 per cent in June to 24 per cent in December
- Kabel Deutschland, of Germany, 7.1 per cent in June to 24 per cent in December
- Swisscom, of Switzerland, from 15.8 per cent in June to 21 per cent in December
Among the mobile operating systems with the highest IPv6 request as of December 2013, were:
- Windows Phone OS 8, 10.9 per cent
- BlackBerry OS 10, 5.3 per cent
- Android 4.4 (KitKat), 5.3 per cent
- Android 4.1/4.2/4.3 (Jelly Bean), 7.2 per cent
- Android 4.0 (Ice Cream), 4.1 per cent