The Number of IPv6 Users in the Region Has Increased by 50%

30/01/2019

IPv6 deployment in the LACNIC service region increased significantly during 2018, particularly in Argentina, Mexico and Saint Martin. Likewise, according to measurements obtained by LACNIC’s R&D department, the number of IPv6 users grew 50% between January and December.

LACNIC measures regional IPv6 penetration based on the number of published prefixes, prefixes assigned to the region, IPv6 in content servers, and IPv6 at end-user level. “We obtain many of these numbers from our own systems and others from external sources, always crediting our sources,” commented Alejandro Acosta, Coordinator of LACNIC’s R&D department.

The timeline of IPv6 progress in Latin America and the Caribbean since early 2014 can be found on the LACNIC Labs website.

Statistics show that Uruguay leads the IPv6 penetration ranking with 31.5%, followed by Brazil with 27.5%, a country that doubled their number of users in the past year.

Nevertheless, Acosta also highlighted three countries that achieved very interesting results in 2018: Argentina, Mexico and Saint Martin.

In Argentina, IPv6 penetration grew by more than 50%, having started 2018 with 5.56% and ending the year with approximately 8%.

During 2018, Mexico experienced a growth of more than 250%, having currently reached an IPv6 penetration of 22%.

Finally, Saint Martin, in Acosta’s opinion the IPv6 deployment gold medalist, began the year with 0% of IPv6 penetration and reached 14% in December.

Regional Average. To obtain a number of IPv6 users that better reflects the regional reality, LACNIC’s R&D department publishes a weighted average that considers each country’s population, the total population of Latin America, and the degree of IPv6 penetration, Acosta said.

Based on this work, the number of Internet users with IPv6 was 10% at the beginning of 2018 and 15% at the end of the year, which represents a growth of 50%. “Fifteen out of every 100 Internet users in Latin America are already browsing over IPv6. Should we ignore this figure? I don’t think so,” emphasized the Coordinator of LACNIC’s R&D Department.

Websites Using Regional ccTLDs. Among other measurements, LACNIC locates websites using the region’s ccTLDs and identifies whether they are IPv6-ready. A study is then conducted to determine whether these websites are pointing to an IP address assigned by LACNIC. “In 2017, 33.9% of these IPv6 websites were pointing to addresses assigned by LACNIC. By December 2018, only 19% of those websites were using addresses assigned in our region,” Acosta added. In other words, content is being hosted outside the LACNIC region.

Optimistic Predictions. Acosta is optimistic about the future. According to his predictions, IPv6 will continue to grow in 2019. “IPv6 will continue to grow at end-user level and IPv6-only transport network. In addition, IPv6-only datacenters will begin appearing in our region,” he concluded.