World IPv6 Launch Solidifies Global Support for New Internet Protocol

Top websites, Internet service providers, and home networking equipment manufacturers commit to largest transition in the Internet’s history

Washington, D.C., USA and Geneva, Switzerland – 17 January 2012 – Major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by 6 June 2012.

Organized by the Internet Society, and building on the successful one-day World IPv6 Day event held on 8 June 2011, World IPv6 Launch represents a major milestone in the global deployment of IPv6. As the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4, IPv6 is critical to the Internet’s continued growth as a platform for innovation and economic development.

“The fact that leading companies across several industries are making significant commitments to participate in World IPv6 Launch is yet another indication that IPv6 is no longer a lab experiment; it’s here and is an important next step in the Internet’s evolution,” commented Leslie Daigle, the Internet Society’s Chief Internet Technology Officer. “And, as there are more IPv6 services, it becomes increasingly important for companies to accelerate their own deployment plans.”

ISPs participating in World IPv6 Launch will enable IPv6 for enough users so that at least 1% of their wireline residential subscribers who visit participating websites will do so using IPv6 by 6 June 2012. These ISPs have committed that IPv6 will be available automatically as the normal course of business for a significant portion of their subscribers. Committed ISPs are:

• AT&T
• Comcast
• Free Telecom
• Internode
• KDDI
• Time Warner Cable
• XS4ALL

Participating home networking equipment manufacturers will enable IPv6 by default through the range of their home router products by 6 June 2012. Committed equipment manufacturers are:

• Cisco
• D-Link

Web companies participating in World IPv6 Launch will enable IPv6 on their main websites permanently beginning 6 June 2012. Inaugural participants are:

• Facebook (www.facebook.com)
• Google (www.google.com)
• Microsoft Bing (www.bing.com)
• Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)

Content delivery network providers Akamai and Limelight will be enabling their customers to join this list of participating websites by enabling IPv6 throughout their infrastructure.

As IPv4 addresses become increasingly scarce, every segment of the industry must act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption or risk increased costs and limited functionality online for Internet users everywhere. World IPv6 Launch participants are leading the way in this effort.

For more information about World IPv6 Launch, products and services covered, as well as links to useful information for users and information about how other companies may participate, visit:

http://www.worldipv6launch.org

About the need for IPv6
IPv4 has approximately four billion IP addresses (the sequence of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device). The explosion in the number of people, devices, and web services on the Internet means that IPv4 is running out of space. IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol which provides more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses, will connect the billions of people not connected today and will help ensure the Internet can continue its current growth rate indefinitely.

About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the world’s trusted independent source of leadership for Internet policy, technology standards and future development. Based on its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society works with its members and Chapters around the world to promote the continued evolution and growth of the open Internet through dialog among companies, governments, and other organizations around the world. For more information, see: www.internetsociety.org

Supporting Quotes from World IPv6 Launch Participants

Akamai
“Web-enabled businesses will need to ensure their applications are available over IPv6 in order to keep pace with the Internet’s ever-expanding audience. Akamai is committed to helping our customers with a smooth transition to IPv6 without impacting performance or requiring disruptive changes to their origin networking infrastructure. The global breadth of our IPv6 deployment helped enable a seamless experience for content providers during World IPv6 Day last year, and we stand ready to support this next important, and permanent, step in the evolution of the Internet.”
— Tom Leighton, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, Akamai

AT&T
“We’ve seen unprecedented growth in network traffic over the past several years, and IPv6 is critical to the continuation of that growth. AT&T has been a leader in the transition to IPv6 for many years, and we’re excited to participate in World IPv6 Launch by enabling IPv6 services for new and existing residential customers, in addition to the enterprise customers we support with IPv6 today.”
— John Donovan, CTO, AT&T

Cisco
“IPv6 is important to all of us. It is critical to the continued growth of the Internet, bringing together people and devices around the globe. As a leader in the development of IPv6 since its inception, Cisco is excited to be an integral part of the industry working together toward the World IPv6 Launch organized by the Internet Society. In addition to the continued support for IPv6 we have in our products today, we will be joining other websites around the world by permanently enabling IPv6 on www.cisco.com, as well as enabling IPv6 by default on our new line of E-series home routers.”
— John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco

Comcast
“IPv6 deployment is a key priority for Comcast in 2012, and we’re excited to participate in this Internet Society event that will help catalyze action around the world on this important transition.”
— John Schanz, EVP and Chief Network Officer, Comcast

D-Link
“D-Link recently completed a new round of IPv6 interoperability testing, underscoring our commitment to customers when the transition from IPv4 takes place. As we continue to develop new and innovative networking products, D-Link will provide support across all of our solutions to ensure a smooth transition to IPv6 for service providers and end users.”
— William Brown, associate vice president of product development, D-Link North America

Facebook
“Last year’s industry-wide test of IPv6 successfully showed that the global adoption of IPv6 is the best way to keep web devices communicating in the future. Permanently enabling IPv6 is vital to keeping the Internet open and ensuring people stay connected online as the number of web users and devices continues to grow.”
— Jay Parikh, VP of Infrastructure Engineering at Facebook

Free Telecom
“Free began offering IPv6 service available to its broadband customers via 6rd in 2007, and in 2011 took the bold step of enabling IPv6 for new subscribers by default. Today we have the largest IPv6 user base in the world with over two million subscribers using our award-winning Freebox version 6. Free is thrilled that with the World IPv6 Launch, more and more content is going to be made available to our users over IPv6, and that other ISPs worldwide are committing to enable IPv6 for their users. ”
— Alexandre Cassen, Network Software Engineer, Free Telecom

Google
“World IPv6 Launch marks a watershed moment in Internet history. It breaks the limits of the original address space to open a vast new territory, trillions upon trillions of times larger, and reinforces the end-to-end architecture that made the Internet so powerful at the beginning. Google strongly supports this upgrade. We’re happy to see that everyone is moving to the 21st-century Internet!”
— Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google

Internode
“We are at the stage in IPv6 deployment where it’s time for major Internet Service Providers to make it a transparent part of their customers’ experience. Internode has enabled native IPv6 by default for all new customers, and all the routers we sell all come with ‘IPv6 Inside’. Our experience shows us that IPv6 is now fully capable of providing seamless, uninterrupted and efficient access to the Internet, dual-stacked with IPv4. It’s time to jump in – the water is fine.”
— Simon Hackett, Managing Director at Internode

KDDI
“Last year, in the event of the World IPv6 Day, KDDI’s IPv6 networks worked well when the major websites around the world had IPv6 enabled. KDDI is now operating the networks accommodating more than 600,000 dual stack users. We are promoting the launch of IPv6, in order that the Internet may continue to maintain its key role in society.”
–Mr.Yoshiharu Shimatani, Senior Vice President of KDDI

Limelight Networks
“We are proud to participate in the transition towards IPv6, as one of the first fully IPv6-enabled content delivery networks. IPv6 is a crucial step in facilitating the continued growth and improved performance of IP networks globally. The success of last year’s World IPv6 Day motivated many participants to permanently IPv6 enable their sites. Limelight Networks is committed to working with the industry to increase the level of preparation so that we can accelerate our move to a more scalable, flexible and interoperable Internet.”
–Todd Braning, VP of Network Architecture and Engineering for Limelight Networks

Microsoft Bing
“Bing is excited to bring the next-generation search to the next generation of the Internet. Microsoft has been pleased to partner with so many industry leading technology companies to usher in the next evolution of the Internet.”
— Derrick Connell, corporate vice president of Bing at Microsoft Corporation

Time Warner Cable
“The time to permanently enable IPv6 has arrived. Time Warner Cable is committed to the World IPv6 Launch in June, our customers should be reassured that the platform is ready and our partners should be including IPv6 in all their products and services.”
— Mike Lajoie, CTO of Time Warner Cable

Yahoo!
“The Internet has grown to be an essential part of our daily lives. It connects our devices to our apps; more importantly, it connects us to each other. Yahoo! is proud to be a part of the World IPv6 Launch – an event that marks the next chapter of our Internet. IPv6 enables the Internet to grow, while remaining open and accessible to new applications and new ideas.”
— Jason Fesler, Distinguished Architect and IPv6 Evangelist, Yahoo!

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