By way of a news release from ZTE Corporation we were pleased to read about China Telecom’s recent successful testing of IPv6 capabilities on its 4G/LTE network in the Hunan province of China. Given that LTE has been a huge area of growth for IPv6 globally, such as the recent measurement of Verizon Wireless’ network as having over 50% IPv6 deployment, we certainly see LTE as one of the first ways that many people will receive IPv6 in a mobile environment.
Given that ZTE Corporation is a equipment vendor their news release naturally explains how they helped China Telecom, but overlooking the marketing for a moment there are some useful data points in the news release:
The comprehensive weeklong test involved trial users and covered IPv4/IPv6 single- and dual-stack services, billing systems and backend IT infrastructure systems, demonstrating China Telecom’s 4G LTE network to be IPv6-ready.
As China Telecom rolls out 4G LTE services nationwide, IPv6 will help the operator manage the anticipated explosion in demand for new IP addresses. Becoming IPv6-ready is a key part of China Telecom’s plans for wider 4G LTE network deployments.
This successful IPv6 test fully verified the IPv6/IPv4 dual-stack capabilities of China Telecom’s 4G LTE network in Hunan, laying a solid foundation for the operator’s plans for wider deployment of 4G and other next-generation services in the future.
All great to see. Beyond a “test”, of course, we look forward to seeing the full deployment of IPv6 across China Telecom’s 4G LTE network!
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