Arcep has published its latest dashboard on the transition to IPv6 in France. While showing ongoing progress, the indicators collected from the country's main network operators point to the risk that the migration may not be completed before the anticipated depletion of IPv4 addresses, expected by 2021.
Free and Orange have remained ahead of competitors Bouygues Telecom and SFR in rolling out IPv6 across their fixed networks. Free's deployment rate progressed to 50 percent as of June, closely followed by Orange with 45 percent of customers active on IPv6. Bouygues Telecom and SFR trailed at a distance with rates of 2.5 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.
On mobile networks, the roll-out of IPv6 has not made much progress so far. Bouygues Telecom led rivals with a rate of 7 percent of customers active on IPv6, while the comparable take-up for Orange, Free and SFR was close to zero.
As in the previous years, the regulator is calling for all market players, including those providing hosting and DNS infrastructure, to step up their efforts and accelerate the migration from IPv4.