According to China Central Television, the China Education and Research Network 2 has connected 167 institutes and departments at 25 universities in 20 cities to IPv6.
The new protocol blows away the current standard of IPv4 in speed tests. IPv6 operates at speeds between 2.5 and 10 gigabytes of information per second. That’s more than 100 times faster than current network speeds.
In addition to the speed boost, IPv6 is reported to offer enhanced security, better compatibility with mobile phones and is capable of handling an unlimited capacity of Internet addresses.
The U.S., South Korea and Japan also are working on IPv6, but the technology is not expected gain significant market penetration until 2010, according to reports.
After receiving government approval for the new Internet protocol in 2003, Chinese researchers began developing the network with the aim of making Chinese hardware companies the market leader in the emerging network technology. The early rollout would give Chinese tech firms a head start on the competition that is developing competing hardware devices, the China Daily reported.
Five major Chinese telecom operators are working on IPv6 technology for consumer use, and expect to begin beta testing later this year.