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Comment by alt227

5 days ago

People love this graph and regularly tout it as if it explains full internet usage. Especially when they dont bother to add any explanation or comment alongside it.

This graph is mainly due to the fact that telcos use IPv6 for mobile devices, nothing more. Over time you will see that graph flatline and peter out as mobile device uage reaches critical mass.

It seems more the other end of the stick: the IPv4 side of the graph is mainly held up due to corporations. The consumer internet continues to switch, but corporate VPNs are going to continue to drag down the numbers until corporations get charged enough for IPv4 address space that bottom lines start to notice.

  • Yes good point, I agree that IPv4 addresses are going to become a commodity in the future and their value will start to increase dramatically to the point where it is only corporations which can afford to use them. IPv6 use may well start to spike again if that happens.

Every major ISP in the US, India, and most of the rest of Asia that I’ve seen is handing out and using IPv6 now too.

Hell, chances are if you got a new router (like any new client) for your ISP, you’d be on v6 too.

It was simply to point out that you are objectively incorrect. No commentary was necessary. My phone and home broadband both use IPv6 primarily.

  • If you were correct, that graph would have been over 50% ages ago.

    As it is, that graph is showing how adoption is slowing and has been for the last 10 years.

    Hardly anybodies physical internet connection is using IPv6 primarily worldwide, those numbers are all mobile device space.

> Over time you will see that graph flatline and peter out as mobile device uage reaches critical mass.

...what? The majority of people access the Internet from their phone, and not only since yesterday either. Are you arguing that this is temporary fad somehow?

  • I don't think they are arguing for a decrease. I took flatline and peter out to mean stabilize.

    • That is correct, thankyou for assuming the positive instead of the negative.

      I personally believe that at about 60% utilisation the line on the graph will become flat and stay that way.

  • I am arguing that at some point there wont be any more people without phones, meaning it has reached critical mass and so IPv6 adoption will stall. The number of smartphones in the world will not keep on going up forever.

    • That would only happen if all of v6's growth is coming from mobile users, no mobile networks are growing/deployed without v6, and also no users are dropping their wired connections.

      You can look at the AS breakdowns on APNIC's stats and see that ASs that serve non-mobile customers are getting v6, and that some ASs for mobile users aren't. So no, it won't stall.

      Slow down perhaps, but it has to slow down at some point or it'll go above 100%.