Major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by 6 June 2012.

Organized by the Internet Society, and building on the successful one-day World IPv6 Day event held on 8 June 2011, World IPv6 Launch represents a major milestone in the global deployment of IPv6. As the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4, IPv6 is critical to the Internet's continued growth as a platform for innovation and economic development."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," commented Leslie Daigle, the Internet Society's Chief Internet Technology Officer. "And, as there are more IPv6 services, it becomes increasingly important for companies to accelerate their own deployment plans."

ISPs participating in World IPv6 Launch will enable IPv6 for enough users so that at least 1% of their wireline residential subscribers who visit participating websites will do so using IPv6 by 6 June 2012. These ISPs have committed that IPv6 will be available automatically as the normal course of business for a significant portion of their subscribers. Committed ISPs are:

• AT&T
• Comcast
• Free Telecom
• Internode
• KDDI
• Time Warner Cable
• XS4ALL

Participating home networking equipment manufacturers will enable IPv6 by default through the range of their home router products by 6 June 2012. Committed equipment manufacturers are:

• Cisco
• D-Link

Web companies participating in World IPv6 Launch will enable IPv6 on their main websites permanently beginning 6 June 2012. Inaugural participants are:

• Facebook
• Google
• Microsoft Bing
• Yahoo!

Content delivery network providers Akamai and Limelight will be enabling their customers to join this list of participating websites by enabling IPv6 throughout their infrastructure.
As IPv4 addresses become increasingly scarce, every segment of the industry must act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption or risk increased costs and limited functionality online for Internet users everywhere. World IPv6 Launch participants are leading the way in this effort.

For more information about World IPv6 Launch, products and services covered, as well as links to useful information for users and information about how other companies may participate, visit World IPv6 Launch.

About the need for IPv6
IPv4 has approximately four billion IP addresses (the sequence of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device). The explosion in the number of people, devices, and web services on the Internet means that IPv4 is running out of space. IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol which provides more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses, will connect the billions of people not connected today and will help ensure the Internet can continue its current growth rate indefinitely.

About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the world's trusted independent source of leadership for Internet policy, technology standards and future development. Based on its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society works with its members and Chapters around the world to promote the continued evolution and growth of the open Internet through dialog among companies, governments, and other organizations around the world. For more information, see InternetSociety.org.