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IPv6 Growth Increases 300 Per Cent in Two Years

Internet Governance Forum, Hyderabad, India, 3 December 2008 - The Number Resource Organization (NRO), which is made up of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), announces today that the rate of new entrants into the IPv6 routing system has increased by approximately 300 percent over the past two years. This growth has been helped by the active promotion of IPv6 by the five RIRs and their communities1; and developing economies, such as India, are playing an increasingly important role in generating demand for global IPv6 deployment.

"What we are now seeing is an acceleration in IPv6 activity on the Internet, clearly indicating the start of production deployment in many parts if the world," says Paul Wilson, Chair of the NRO. "We are also seeing a rapid increase in allocation of IPv6 addresses, reflecting an increasing readiness for imminent deployment. These developments are due to the work of all global stakeholders in assembling the resources necessary for IPv6 adoption."

He adds: "For those yet to deploy, there is still time for a planned and cost-efficient transition to IPv6. The fact that we have not seen this so far is a conscious decision by parts of the industry rather than a failure on anyone's part, but the time for active planning is now."

Adiel Akplogan, AfriNIC CEO, comments: "Just as many developing economies have leapfrogged the extensive wired telephone network with wireless, new networks and developing economies can bypass IPv4-only networks. Instead, they can incorporate IPv6 from the start, avoiding much of the transition cost. It is essential, however, that equipment vendors provide IPv6 upgrades and functionality at minimal extra cost, and that those whose products do not yet provide IPv6 support should develop upgrades without delay."

The RIRs work together at global and regional levels to promote transition to IPv6 and prepare strategies to manage the distribution of the remaining unallocated pool of IPv4. The open, multi-stakeholder approach of the RIRs has enabled the recent adoption of a global policy for the allocation of the remaining IPv4 address space. It guarantees that each RIR receives one of the last five blocks of IPv4 addr