North America Lags Behind on IPv6 Readiness

New data from Synergy Research Group shows that on June 6, the official World IPv6 Launch Day, just under 20% of the world’s installed base of enterprise routers will be IPv6 capable. What will surprise many is that North America is lagging far behind other major regions with just 12% of its enterprise routers being IPv6 capable. Western Europe comes out top of the ranking by a wide margin – on June 6, the official World IPv6 Launch Day, almost 28% of Western Europe’s enterprise routers will be primed and ready to handle IPv6. Lagging behind North America are the Middle East & Africa and Eastern Europe.

Synergy forecasts that by the end of 2016, 59% of the world’s routers will be IPv6 capable. By then North America will have crept just ahead of the world average, while Western Europe will have moved on to 81% penetration of routers.

The story is a little different if you drill down to high-end routers. “IPv6 penetration among high-end routers is substantially higher than for SOHO or access routers, but even there North America lags behind Western Europe and Asia & Pacific,” says Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and Chief Analyst. “These results should not be too surprising given that depletion of IPv4 addresses is not as pressing in North America as it is in other regions. However, we are seeing indications that point to accelerated  IPv6 adoption in North America.”