Africa faster at adopting IPv6 according to ICANN

The ICANN blog recently discussed the adoption of IPv6, and assumed readers would be shocked to find out which region is showing the widest adoption of the new protocol. Not surprisingly, the largest number of networks displaying the new address blocks are those registered through AfriNIC, which services networks in Africa and the Indian Ocean.

The growth of IPv6 in Africa is expected since it is a continent that's showing rapid growth in terms of online connectivity. With the estimated date for exhaustion of IPv4 addressing in 2010, it makes sense to that a burgeoning Internet community would adopt the new protocol. It should be noted though, that many older pieces of equipment can't address the IPv6 standards, and is still dependent on using the older protocol. IPv4 will probably be very much alive to address those systems.

ICANN also noted on the blog that AfriNIC has a smaller installed base than many of the other regions but it's encouraging to see new markets already moving toward the new protocol.