April 7, 2026
New internet, same old beef
Why IPv6 is the only way forward
India hints at dumping the old internet; commenters fire back with ‘good luck with that’
TLDR: An Indian writer urges ditching the old address system (IPv4) for IPv6, citing India’s tiny share of addresses and 77% IPv6 use. The crowd claps back: people prefer easy workarounds, want backwards compatibility, and bet IPv4 remains the default—sparking a loud, funny, high-stakes stalemate
An Indian author says the quiet part out loud: India got a tiny slice of the old internet’s addresses (just 1.13%), while the U.S. is swimming in them, so why not flip the switch and go full IPv6? With 77% of Indian users already on it, the op-ed argues it’s time to end the “shared address” life where many people hide behind one address and everything needs awkward workarounds. Cue the comment-section riot. Skeptics say IPv6 “feels different under the hood,” and that’s enough to keep them on the comfy couch of the old system. One crowd insists if the new thing was going to win, it would’ve won by now; another drags in a spicy analogy: UTF‑8 kept old ASCII happy, but IPv6 didn’t baby IPv4—and that’s the whole mess. The doomsayers-turned-comedians predict we’ll still be on the old stuff in 20 years, while IPv6 fans fire back that the internet can’t run on duct tape forever. Meanwhile, the joke of the day? A commenter roasting the author because the site’s RSS points to example.com. If the pitch is “India should just switch it off,” the comments answer: bold plan, but bring snacks and a translator for the alphabet soup of IPv6 jargon
Key Points
- •The article asserts that Indian ISPs once allocated public IPv4 addresses but adopted NAT as user numbers grew, ending routine public IP availability.
- •A table in the article shows uneven IPv4 allocation: the United States at 43.71% versus India at 1.13% and China at 9.31%, despite their large populations.
- •The author claims India and China rely on multiple layers of NAT due to limited IPv4 addresses.
- •The article states India’s IPv6 adoption is at 77% and suggests India could consider turning off IPv4 to accelerate transition.
- •It argues the internet has prepared for IPv6 for decades, most devices now support it, and moving to IPv6 is presented as the necessary path forward.