It was recently announced by the founders of SixXS that the service will be closed on 6 June 2017.
SixXS is a IPv6 Deployment and Tunnel Broker service that started back in 1999 with a view to providing a way for network operators and users to gain experience of IPv6, and to encourage deployment of IPv6 in the real world.
The founders Pim van Pelt and Jeroen Massar now believe SixXS has achieved many of its original objectives with native IPv6 having become more widely available. Whilst SixXS has experienced declining uptake since 2011, this should be viewed positively as it has gone hand-in-hand with increased IPv6 adoption by production networks and particularly content providers.
SixXS has brought IPv6 to over 50,000 users in more than 140 countries, with 65 servers hosted at approximately 40 network providers. It has also contributed towards solving the chicken-and-egg problem whereby content providers would not invest in IPv6 whilst ISPs were not offering it, and ISPs would not offer it whilst there were no IPv6 resources. By providing users with IPv6 connectivity, it has encouraged the major content providers such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Akamai, Netflix, Microsoft, Yahoo and Wikipedia to offer it, which is making it harder for network operators to argue a lack of demand.
The founders feel the existence of IPv6 tunnel brokers is now providing a disincentive for network operators to deploy native IPv6, which is another reason for deciding to close the service.
SixXS recently undertook a survey of the IPv6 rollout plans of network operators, and users are encouraged to continue press for IPv6 where their operators has no plans for rollout.
Deploy360 would like to acknowledge the founders and supporters of SixXS for their efforts to promote and deploy IPv6 over the past 18 years.
We would also like to encourage you to deploy IPv6, so please check our Start Here page for more information!