The deployment of IPv6, the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP), has been in progress since the mid-2000s. IPv6 was designed as the successor protocol for IPv4 with an expanded addressing space. IPv4, which has been in use since 1982, is in the final stages of exhausting its unallocated address space, but still carries most Internet traffic. By 2011, all major operating systems in use on personal computers and server systems had production-quality IPv6 implementations. Mobile telephone networks present a large deployment field for Internet-connected devices in which voice is provisioned as a voice over IP (VoIP) service. In 2009, the US cellular operator Verizon released technical specifications for devices to operate on its 4G networks. The specification mandates IPv6 operation according to the 3GPP Release 8 Specifications (March 2009), and deprecates IPv4 as an optional capability. , Google's statistics show IPv6 availability of its global user base at around 42–47% depending on the day of the week (greater on weekends). Adoption is uneven across countries and Internet service providers. Countries including France, Germany and India now run the majority of their traffic to Google over IPv6, with other countries including the United States, Brazil and Japan at around 50%. Russia and Australia have over 30% adoption, while China has less than 10% and some countries such as Sudan and Turkmenistan have less than 1% IPv6 adoption.

Deployment tools and evaluation

Rapid deployment tools

Tools such as 6rd, conceived by Rémi Després, have been developed to enable IPv6 rapid deployment.

Statistics and monitoring

Google publishes statistics on IPv6 adoption among Google users. A graph of IPv6 adoption since 2008 and a map of IPv6 deployment by country are available. Akamai publishes by-country and by-network statistics on IPv6 adoption for traffic it sees on its global Content Distribution Network (CDN). This set of data also shows graphs for each country and network over time. A global view into the history of the growing IPv6 routing tables can be obtained with the SixXS Ghost Route Hunter. This tool provided a list of all allocated IPv6 prefixes until 2014 and marks with colors the ones that were actually being announced into the Internet BGP tables. When a prefix was announced, it means that the ISP at least can receive IPv6 packets for their prefix. The integration of IPv6 on existing network infrastructure may be monitored from other sources, for example:

Testing, evaluation, and certification

A few organizations are involved with international IPv6 test and evaluation, ranging from the United States Department of Defense to the University of New Hampshire.

Major milestones

Operating system support

By 2011, all major operating systems in use on personal computers and server systems had production-quality IPv6 implementations. Microsoft Windows has supported IPv6 since Windows 2000, and in production-ready state beginning with Windows XP. Windows Vista and later have improved IPv6 support. macOS since Panther (10.3), Linux 2.6, FreeBSD, and Solaris also have mature production implementations. Some implementations of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file transfer protocol make use of IPv6 to avoid NAT issues common for IPv4 private networks.

Government encouragement

In the early 2000s, governments increasingly required support for IPv6 in new equipment. The US government, for example, specified in 2005 that the network backbones of all federal agencies had to be upgraded to IPv6 by June 30, 2008; this was completed before the deadline. In addition, the US government in 2010 required federal agencies to provide native dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 access to external/public services by 2012, and internal clients were to utilize IPv6 by 2014. On November 19, 2020, the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the latest US federal government IPv6-only policy in its memorandum (M-21-07) directing all federal government agencies to complete at least 80% of the transition from IPv4 to the single stack of IPv6 by 2025. Progress on the US government's external facing IPv6 services is tracked by NIST. The government of the People's Republic of China implemented a five-year plan for deployment of IPv6 called the China Next Generation Internet (see below).

Coexistence with IPv4

On 7 March 2013, the Internet Engineering Task Force created a working group for IPv4 sunset in preparation for protocol changes that could be used to support sunset/shutdown of remnant IPv4 networks. However, in May 2018 this working group was closed as no immediate work could be identified due to the slow transition to IPv6. The Internet Engineering Task Force expects IPv6 to coexist with IPv4 as it is considered impractical to transition to IPv6 in the short term. The coexistence is expected to be based on dual-stack, tunneling or translation mechanisms. Dual-stack implementations required two parallel logical networks, increasing cost and complexity of the network. IPv4 networks are expected to slowly transition into segmented subnetworks using IPv4 Residual Deployment. The slow transition to IPv6 has caused significant resentment in the Internet community. As a result, many larger enterprises, such as Microsoft, are transitioning to phasing out IPv4 and moving towards IPv6 Single-Stack within the company. In a 2019 blog, the company describes their heavily translated IPv4 network as "potentially fragile", "operationally challenging", and with regard to dual-stack operations (i.e. those running IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously) "complex".

Deployment by country and region

Algeria

AnwarNet (www.anwarnet.dz); AfriNIC has allocated range of IPv6 address space to AnwarNet. AnwarNet started IPV6 services in 2011.

Australia

Bangladesh

Belgium

Brazil

As of April 2021, Brazil has 38.4% IPv6 adoption. IPv6 adoption in the country was boosted in 2015 when the Brazilian telecommunications agency, Anatel, announced that all Internet operators and service providers would be required to provide IPv6 addresses to consumers. This was one of a number of initiatives to increase the speed of deployment.

Bulgaria

Has constructed a research center to study the possibilities of adopting IPv6 in the country. The center will operate alongside another facility, which is equipped with an IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer. Since 2015, the ISP Blizoo enabled IPv6 for many home customers. At the end of 2016, the ISP ComNet Bulgaria Holding Ltd. has provided complete IPv6 support for all customers and households within company network in Bulgaria.

Canada

IPv6 deployment is slow but ongoing, with major Canadian ISPs (notably Bell Canada) lacking in support for its residential customers, and the majority of their business customers (including server packages). According to Google's statistics, Canada reached an IPv6 adoption level of 39.66% as of May 2022.

China

The China Next Generation Internet (CNGI, 中国下一代互联网) project is an ongoing plan initiated by the Chinese government with the purpose of gaining a significant position in the development of the Internet through the early adoption of IPv6. China showcased CNGI's IPv6 infrastructure during the 2008 Summer Olympics, being the first time a major world event has had a presence on the IPv6 Internet. At the time of the event, it was believed that the Olympics provided the largest showcase of IPv6 technology since the inception of IPv6. The deployment of IPv6 was widespread in all related applications, from data networking and camera transmissions for sporting events, to civil applications, such as security cameras and taxis. The events were streamed live over the Internet and networked cars were able to monitor traffic conditions readily, all network operations of the Games being conducted using IPv6. Also, the CERNET (China Education and Research NETwork, 中国教育和科研计算机网, 教育网) set up native IPv6 (CERNET2), and since then many academic institutions in China joined CERNET2 for IPv6 connectivity. CERNET-2 is probably the widest deployment of IPv6 in China. It is managed and operated jointly by 25 universities. Students in Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, for example, get native IPv6. In 2017, China issued an "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6" where it encouraged a nationwide adoption of the IPv6 network. Outlined in the plan, China had set goals to develop a next-generation internet technical system and industrial ecosystem with independent intellectual property rights in 5 to 10 years, and aimed at having the largest IPv6 network in the world by the end of 2025. In 2018, US researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology categorized China as being part of a group of 169 countries that had little IPv6 traffic. As of 2021, Akamai's latest State of the Internet Report asserts an IPv6 adoption level of 23.5% among Chinese internet connections. In July 2021, China announced plans to complete a national IPv6 rollout by 2030. It is the only country known to advocate towards a single-stack network and had earlier in May 2021, overtaken India in becoming the Number 1 country in terms of having the most IPv6 addresses in the world, with 528 million.

Czech Republic

As of June 2023, the country has a deployment ratio around 24%, according to Google and around 20% to APNIC stats.

Denmark

As of June 2023, the country has only 10% IPv6 traffic, according to Google stats. A web page (in Danish) follows national IPv6 deployment. The ISP Fullrate has begun offering IPv6 to its customers, on the condition that their router (provided by the ISP itself) is compatible. If the router is of a different version, the customer has to request a new router. Several other small ISP have already begun implementing the protocol as well as 3, the smallest mobile provider.

Estonia

Estonian Telekom is providing native IPv6 access on residential and business broadband connections since September 2014. According to Google's statistics, Estonia has reached an IPv6 adoption level of 32% by June 2023.

Finland

FICORA (Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority), the NIC for the .fi top level domain, has added IPv6 address to DNS servers, and allows entering IPv6 address when registering domains. The registration service domain.fi for new domains is also available over IPv6. A small Finnish ISP Nebula has offered IPv6 access since 2007. FICORA held national IPv6 day on June 9, 2015. At that time Elisa and DNA Oyj started providing IPv6 on mobile subscriptions, and Telia Company (via 6rd) and DNA Oyj (native) started providing IPv6 on fixed-line connections. According to Google's statistics, Finland has reached an IPv6 adoption level of 48%.

France

As of May 2023, France has 74% IPv6 traffic according to Google, and 65% according to APNIC.

Germany

According to Google's statistics, Germany has reached an IPv6 adoption level of 68% by June 2023.

Hong Kong

Hungary

In Hungary Externet was the first ISP starting deploying IPv6 on its network in 2008 August. The service was commercially available since 2009 May. Magyar Telekom was running tests on its production environments since the beginning of 2009. Free customer trials started on November 2, 2009, for those on ADSL or Fiber Optic. Customers are given a via DHCP-ND unless they register their DUID in which case they receive a /56 – using a static configuration results in a single. According to information on telecompaper.com, UPC Hungary will start deploying IPv6 in mid-2013, finishing it in 2013. The plan has not materialized until the end of 2015. In 2015, December RCS&RDS (Digi) has enabled native dual-stack IPv6 (customers receive dynamic /64 prefixes) for its FTTB/H customers. In November the same year UPC Hungary introduced DS Lite(with private IPv4 addresses) which can be enabled on a customer-to-customer basis if the customer asks for it. Magyar Telekom deployed dual-stack IPv6 (using dynamic /56 prefixes on DSL and GPON and static prefixes on DOCSIS) for all of its wired (and for all of its compatible mobile) customers in October 2016. According to the statistics of APNIC, IPv6 use in Hungary as of 2018 December has reached around 20%. According to Google's IPv6 statistics the adoption level in Hungary as of April 2022 is 42%.

India

According to Google's statistics, India has reached an IPv6 adoption level of around 68.94% in January 2023. As of 2022, APNIC placed India at more than 75% preferring IPv6.

Ireland

Growth of IPv6 in Ireland as seen by Google.

Italy

According to Google's statistics, Italy had an IPv6 adoption level of 12.4% by June 2023.

Japan

According to Google's statistics, Japan had an IPv6 adoption level of 43.79% by April 2022.

Lebanon

Lithuania

The LITNET academic & research network has supported IPv6 since 2001. Most commercial ISPs have not publicly deployed IPv6 yet.

Luxembourg

According to Google's statistics, Luxembourg reached an IPv6 adoption level of 36% by July 2020.

Netherlands

New Zealand

In 2012, surveys conducted by the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force indicated that awareness of IPv6 had reached a near-universal level among New Zealand's large public- and private-sector organizations, with adoption mostly occurring as part of normal network refresh cycles. Most of New Zealand's ISP and carrier community have a test environment for IPv6 and many have started bringing IPv6 products and services on-stream. An increasing number of New Zealand government websites are available over IPv6, including those of the Ministry of Defence (New Zealand), Ministry for Primary Industries (New Zealand) and the Department of Internal Affairs.

Philippines

The government is in process of upgrading its facilities. Globe Telecom has already set in motion the transition of its core IP network to IPv6, noting that it is now fully prepared even as the Internet runs out of IPv4 addresses. Globe claims it is the first local telecommunication company to test IPv6 with Department of Science and Technology (Philippines). In some cases, like test networks or users, IPv6 or both may be present. Since then, Globe Telecom has successfully deployed IPv6 in 2020 on its 5G network and in 2021 on its fiber and 4G network.

Poland

Romania

Russian Federation

Saudi Arabia

Serbia

Slovenia

Spain

Sri Lanka

Sudan

The Sudanese IPv6 task Force SDv6TF was formed in 2010 to fellow the implementation of IPv6 migration plan (2011–2015). By November 2012, all telecom operators are becoming IPv6 enabled, this was tested for the first time at the AFRINIC-17 meeting held in Khartoum. SudREN (Sudanese Research and Education Network) is the first ISP to provide native IPv6 connectivity of the member institution. By August 2014, SudREN.edu.sd is fully IPv6 Enabled. Two certification received from IPv6 Forum, for WWW and ISP Enabled Logos.

Sweden

Operators offering native IPv6 access for business clients and collocation customers include Tele2 and Phonera.

Switzerland

Tunisia

Tunisia officially launched IPv6 on September 20, 2023, initially over the mobile network with the three local telecom operators: Tunisie Telecom, Ooredoo Tunisie and, Orange Tunisie and later over the fixed network with the foremost Internet service provider, Topnet. Within just one year, the country's IPv6 adoption rate skyrocketed from 0% to 20%, positioning Tunisia as the third-leading country in Africa for IPv6 adoption and the country that has done the most significant jump worldwide according to the statistics publicly provided by the APNIC Labs. The national IPv6 Task Force was established in November 2021, by ministerial decision, with the mandate to develop a comprehensive action plan aimed at accelerating IPv6 adoption which is a key prerequisite for the rollout of 5G technology in Tunisia. All major stakeholders and players along in the Internet chain were involved in drafting the national roadmap toward the adoption of the IPv6: telecom regulatory authority, telecom operators, Internet service providers, public and private Cloud service providers and telecom and handset manufacturers. The final roadmap, along with the technical decisions, the key choices, and the implementation phases for each actor on various networks and services, was unveiled during a public workshop on Friday, February 4, 2022. The national IPv6 strategy was developed in light of current technical circumstances, such as the state of the network infrastructure, the technical skills available for IPv6, and the cost of switching. Moreover, the national IPv6 policy was defined in a government circular and published on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Both the implementation and testing phases spanned about one year, culminating in the official announcement of IPv6 adoption on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, during a grand event led by the Minister of Communication Technologies, Dr. Nizar Ben Néji. The event was attended by key figures from Tunisia's teleco and IT ecosystem. This date marked a significant milestone in the effort to build a resilient national network infrastructure capable of supporting emerging technologies. Moreover, Tunisia's transition to IPv6 represents far more than technological upgrade; it is a strategic move set to accelerate the country’s digital transformation and to put the country in line with the world.

Ukraine

Some IPv6 implementation has taken place.

United Kingdom

According to Google's statistics, United Kingdom has reached an IPv6 adoption level of 43.55% as of April 2022.

United States

In the United States the majority of smartphones use IPv6, but only a small percent of computers and tablets use IPv6. , 46.2% of Google users in the US use IPv6.

Further countries

As of January 2021

Events

World IPv6 Day

The Internet Society promoted June 8, 2011, as "World IPv6 Day". The event was described as a "test drive" for full IPv6 rollouts.

World IPv6 Launch

The Internet Society declared June 6, 2012, to be the date for "World IPv6 Launch", with participating major websites enabling IPv6 permanently, participating ISPs offering IPv6 connectivity, and participating router manufacturers offering devices enabled for IPv6 by default.