At the recent IPv6 Enablers conference held in Edinburgh last week, BT announced that they will be rolling out IPv6 to broadband users in 2015.
In 2013, BT trialled the use of Carrier Grade NAT (CGN) as a possible approach to extending the life of the IPv4 Internet. BT found the problems associated with CGN made it an unacceptable solution. As a result, BT is now committed to deploying IPv6 which is the only long term solution to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem.
This is extremely important news for IPv6 adoption in the UK. Today many of the world’s top Internet sites and Content Providers are IPv6 enabled as are all the main carriers. In many cases all that hinders the use of IPv6 is the last mile to the End User being IPv6 enabled. In the UK, the deployment of IPv6 by BT and the other ISPs will eliminate this obstruction to the widespread use of IPv6.
In other parts of the world where End Users have IPv6, it is common today for 50% of the End Users’ traffic to be carried over IPv6. This figure was 35% in 2013, demonstrating the rapid growth in the number of IPv6 enabled services on the Internet.
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