With the advent of new communication and information technologies, the world has entered a new era. We are witnessing an unprecedented historical moment where future-shaping technologies such as AI, 5G, cloud, IoT are emerging simultaneously.

A fundamental enabler lies at the core of all these technologies: IP address. It provides a "key" for devices to connect to the network, without which no communication can be carried out. The explosive growth of intelligent devices has exhausted the previous IPv4 address resources, and IPv6 was introduced to solve this problem. Based on IPv6, IPv6+ further brings many technological benefits to deliver high quality and smart connections. Together, IPv6 and IPv6+ provide the basis for the digitalization of all industries.

Over the past decade, multiple initiatives at both global and regional level have been implemented to facilitate a coordinated transition to IPv6 and IPv6+ for the entire internet ecosystem. At this moment, we find it necessary to reflect on how the world has progressed in this transition and evaluate the socio-economic value that IPv6 and IPv6+ have created.

We think a better understanding of the benefits of IPv6 and IPv6+ and the importance of making the transition to IPv6 and IPv6+ can help the society in general in realizing the critical role that the technology plays. We hope that the measurements of IPv6 deployment progress provided in this paper could enhance the general public's awareness of the technology and where we stand today. We also hope that our study on government policies could provide some input and reference for policy makers to drive IPv6 and IPv6+ deployment.

It is our strong belief that digital technology will play a more and more important role in driving the world forward. The ultimate transition to IPv6 and IPv6+ will be the fundamental enabler of digital economy transformation and improved social governance.

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