Asia Global Crossing announces beta test phase or IPv6 capability - Tests/Trials - Brief Article

Fiber Optics Business, Jan 15, 2002

Global Crossing made IPv6 available over its IP network in December 2001 through a beta phase offered by its subsidiary Asia Global Crossing. IPv6, which exponentially increases the number of available IP addresses, is needed industry-wide to alleviate the current shortage of addresses available through today's IPv4 technology.

Jointly developed by Asia Global Crossing and Global Crossing, Asia Global Crossing's IPv6 capability is currently available on a trial basis in Japan. Asia Global Crossing and Global Crossing selected Japan as the test market in response to the country's looming IP address shortage, as well as to meet the Japanese government's mandate that government, educational and industrial networks achieve IPv6 capability. The companies plan to expand the capability throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas as demand for the protocol grows.

When fully deployed, Global Crossing's IPv6 capability will allow carriers and ISPs to provide IPv6 services to their customers, and multinational enterprises will be able to leverage IPv6 connections in more than 200 major business centers worldwide.

For the trial in Japan, Asia Global Crossing will initially offer IPv6 with a tunneling technology which allows carrier, ISP, and multinational enterprise customers to use both IPv6 and IPv4 protocols simultaneously, encapsulating IPv6 packets into IPv4 packets. With Asia Global Crossing's IPv6 peering arrangements, carriers and ISPs will be able to provide IPv6 access to other IPv6 enabled locations on the Internet.