World IPv6 switch-over event scheduled for June 6

The Internet Society is organizing a pow wow of big ISPs, web companies and networking equipment providers on June 6 to ceremonially bury the world’s current Internet protocol, IPv4, and permanently implement its successor, IPv6.

Global broadband providers AT&T, Comcast, Free Telecom (which has been very much in the news of late), KDDI, Internode, Time Warner Cable and XS4ALL will form the ISP contingent; Cisco Systems and D-Link will represent the equipment makers; and Facebook, Google, Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo will make up the Web delegation. According to a statement from society chief Internet office Leslie Daigle:

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. And, as there are more IPv6 services, it becomes increasingly important for companies to accelerate their own deployment plans.

Of course, the Internet Society won’t just flip and switch and convert the world to longer IP addresses, but the organization said it wanted to build on last year’s World IPv6 day, by rather theatrically marking the permanent transition of some of the world’s biggest IP properties to the new protocol. The broadband ISPs have promised that by June 6, 1 percent of their residential customers will be accessing the websites, where possible, via IPv6. Cisco and D-Link will make IPv6 the default settings for their home routers, and the websites will permanently enable the protocol on their main webpages. Akamai and Limelight will also recruit other websites to join the initiative, by implementing IPv6 throughout their content delivery networks.

Image courtesy of Flickr user ADoseofShipBoy

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