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The State of IPv6 in Canada

A report on the state of IPv6 deployment in Canada concludes that we are:

significantly lower than countries it normally likes to compare itself with. Traditionally the IP Transit market in Canada was heavily dominated by Canadian Companies. However these companies have missed the boat in the new world of IPv6. Most of the IPv6 ready Canadian networks are now forced to by transit from the larger global carriers.

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10 Comments

  1. Not overly surprised. I seriously doubt that the Canadian telecom companies are going to do anything to upgrade their infrastructure/networks without some sort of government intervention. Which I also don’t see happening.

  2. @Chris A
    It’ll happen, eventually, but I suspect mostly through attrition rather than anything else. As the network equipment gets replaced, IPv6 deployment will become fairly common. Then what remains will be the CPE. As that stuff gets replaced then the customer could start seeing it.

    The only thing that will really force them (other than intervention from the government) is the introduction of a new carrier to a significant portion of the population that supports it. But even then, that carrier is likely to deal with the most populous centres, so that is where the incumbents will introduce the new capability.

  3. @Anon-K
    I don’t have much faith in the CRTC allowing there to actually be a new carrier. Mainly because they seem to do their best to keep Bell, Rogers, etc having a monopoly rather than to actually have to compete.

  4. @Chris A
    I suppose my use of the term carrier was unfortunate; what I probably should have said was provider to better capture what I was thinking. I suspect the driving competition will come through new wireless ISPs rather than through landline and cellular. In my area this is companies such as Xplornet and Storm Internet as examples of the types of ISPs (I don’t know if they support IPv6 currently). Within the ISP space they compete with Bell, Rogers, Cogeco, etc (landline phone, cellular and cable). Xplorenet is already in Ottawa, and has more or less national satellite service according to the ads I get roughly quarterly.

    However, these companies capability to offer usable IPv6 is throttled by the capability of the national network backbone to support it.

  5. red bull hats says:

    Took me awhile to read all the comments, but I really love the article. It proved to be very useful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here!

  6. stivenlarson says:

    Cool!
    Thank you!
    люстры

  7. j@ovz.ca
    Criticizing Canadian companies about missing the boat on IPv6 yet your site is only IPv4. Kinda hypocritical no?

  8. Techsavvy and IPv6
    Currently the only Canadian ISP that I am aware of making the IPv6 effort is Techsavvy. On the other hand my current ISP being one of the local incumbants show now sign of investing in IPv6.

    BTW I have no invested interested in Techsavvy. I just like to recognize companies that are making the IPv6 effort and showing that they are dragging their feet with important new technology.