In anticipation of World IPv6 Day – June 6, 2012 – Nominum released results of a survey of the world’s leading ISPs regarding their plans and concerns regarding the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

Nominum surveyed 67 top ISPs throughout North America, Japan, Europe and Latin America with a combined reach of 110 million households. The survey found that 97 percent of these ISPs have either already implemented or plan to implement IPv6. From that group:

• 23 percent have already done so
• 35 percent say they plan to do so in 2012
• 39 percent say they plan to implement IPv6 in 2013 or later.

The survey revealed major regional differences in IPv6 deployment plans:

• Every Japanese ISP surveyed has deployed IPv6
• Only 25% of North American respondents have deployed IPv6, but 100% plan to by year-end
• Just 48% of European respondents plan to deploy IPv6 by year-end
• Only 20% of Latin American ISPs plan to deploy IPv6 by year-end.

European ISPs appear to have the greatest risk of not making the transition in time since under current policies the Regional Internet Registry for Europe (RIPE NCC) is projected to run out of IPv4 addresses later this year.

Not surprisingly, accommodating new subscriber growth was the number one business reason given for making the change to IPv6. However, most ISPs are not looking beyond software support and interoperability testing to uncover key business benefits associated with IPv6, such as:

Revenue growth: IPv6 accommodates dramatic growth in IP-enabled devices, i.e. the Connected Home, M2M, etc. It also supports growth into new or expanding markets.

Customer loyalty: IPv6 provides for a better experience accessing popular connection-intensive contents, such as Facebook and Google Maps, as well as better peer-to-peer gaming and personal cloud applications.

Network efficiency: Protocol improvements such as better multi-cast support and larger packet sizes enable high performance applications and lower overhead for high performance data transfers for video and cloud access.

“IPv6 represents the biggest change in IP Networking since the start of the Internet. Most people know it is a necessity to keep the Internet moving and growing, but don’t realize how it can be used to improve our favorite applications. It also presents a huge opportunity for operators, content providers and enterprises to harness powerful business benefits associated with the ‘new’ Internet,” said Craig Sprosts, leader of Fixed Broadband Solutions for Nominum. “Things like increased customer loyalty, higher network efficiency and reduced costs are all powerful reasons to make the IPv6 transition. IPV6 presents a viable solution for continued Internet growth, sustainable provider success, and positive user experience.”

The survey also revealed surprising results regarding the transition mechanisms planned for IPv6. Despite the extra expense associated with customer premise equipment, 80 percent of ISPs surveyed say they plan to use a native dual-stack transition mechanism for their roll outs as opposed to carrier-grade NAT and other such technologies.

Dual-stack technology helps ISPs to make smarter use of their existing address space while moving the Internet forward by supporting native IPv6 and the benefits it provides.

For security considerations for IPv6 launch day go here.