Deploy360 4 October 2016

Liquid Telecom deploys IPv6 in Africa

By Jan ŽoržFormer Operational Engagement Programme Manager

liquid-telecomWe recently received good news from Liquid Telecom who have implemented native IPv6 in Kenya and Zimbabwe and are actively using it. This was the next phase after their smaller rollout in Kenya undertaken only a few weeks ago. Others talk about being IPv6 ready, but they’ve proudly gone to being truly IPv6 active.

As Andrew Alston, the main architect behind this achievement said to the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) – “the philosophy behind this shift was that others worry about an IPv4 soft landing, but we deploy IPv6 and ensure we’re ready for the inevitable“.

TwitAt the beginning of this year, Jan Žorž from the Deploy360 team held an advanced workshop on IPv6 security at the Liquid Telecom Kenya headquarters in Nairobi for their networking team, that demonstrated a great interest for the topic along with many questions asked about the particular issues. Our suspicion was that the time had nearly come for deployment and we’re very pleased and proud of Andrew, Chris Mwangi, Anthony Somerset and their excellent team, for Liquid Telecom who are setting a new pace for IPv6 uptake, and for the African continent.

Work is also ongoing on the Liquid Telecom’s FTTH network in Zambia, and we’re looking forward to hearing about the progress. If you look at their network map of Africa, there might be a lot more IPv6 coming.

What can be added? Well done and please continue the path that you have started to take, setting the direction for other network operators to follow. Not deploying IPv6 is just postponing the inevitable.

Please stay tuned for Andrew Alston’s more detailed blog post on the Deploy360 website where he’ll be explain the reasons behind this move, issues they encountered and how they fixed them, along with lessons learned and where they’re heading next.

Jan Žorž

Disclaimer: Viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author and may or may not reflect official Internet Society positions.

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