Deployment
The introduction of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in the Internet routing and IP address allocation methods in 1993 and the extensive use of network address translation (NAT) delayed the inevitable IPv4 address exhaustion, but the final phase of exhaustion started on 3 February 2011. However, despite a decade long development and implementation history as a Standards Track protocol, general worldwide deployment is still in its infancy. As of October 2011, about 3% of domain names and 12% of the networks on the internet have IPv6 protocol support.
IPv6 has been implemented on all major operating systems in use in commercial, business, and home consumer environments. Since 2008, the domain name system can be used in IPv6. IPv6 was first used in a major world event during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the largest showcase of IPv6 technology since the inception of IPv6. Countries like China and the Federal U.S. Government are also starting to require IPv6 capability on their equipment.
In 2010, Verizon mandated IPv6 operation and deprecated IPv4 as an optional capability for cellular hardware. T-Mobile USA followed suit. As of June 2012, T-Mobile supports external IPv6 access.
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