[kictanet] Regional Internet Registries to Appeal for IPv6 Investment at OECD Conference

[Vincent Ngundi]

Regional Internet Registries to Appeal for IPv6 Investment at OECD
Conference on
"The Future of the Internet Economy"
16 June 200

The longer investment is deferred, the greater the risk of Internet
growth slowing down and additional costs being incurred

Danger of arrested development: The cost of migrating the Internet
infrastructure to IPv6 will be significant, but the cost of not making
this investment will end up being far higher.

Korea, 17th June, 2008 – The Number Resource Organization (NRO), which
is made up of the world's five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs),
AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the RIPE NCC, has issued an appeal
for investment in Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) infrastructure.
The global RIR community will be represented by the NRO at the June
OECD Ministerial Meeting in Seoul, Korea, where it will support this
urgent call.

The RIRs are responsible for managing the allocation, assignment and
registration of Internet number resources (IPv4 addresses, IPv6
addresses and Autonomous System (AS) Numbers).

With approximately 85% of all available IPv4 Internet addresses
already in use by May 2008, experts predict that the remaining stock
of unallocated IPv4 addresses will be consumed by around 2011. This
may have an impact on new Internet users and users of Internet devices
that are not IPv6 enabled. In contrast, the pool of available IPv6
numbers will exceed 340 billion billion billion.

Internet addresses are allocated on an 'as-needed' basis. Firstly,
they are allocated to the RIRs from a central pool and then each RIR
distributes them within their region. This system prevents any one
country from running out of addresses significantly before its
neighbours within the same region, and ensures that the supply to all
regions is maintained for as long as possible.

Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at APNIC will call for a significant
acceleration of investment in the infrastructure vital for effective
IPv6 adoption, as part of his speech on Internet industry challenges:

"At present, only a small percentage of the Internet infrastructure
supports IPv6. Significant investment in the infrastructure of the
network is required to enable the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. The
cost of migrating the Internet infrastructure to IPv6 is significant
when considering the global scope of the task, but the cost of not
making this investment will end up being far higher. And, ultimately,
it's the end user population who will have to bear this cost. The
longer this investment in IPv6 deployment is deferred the greater the
risk of costly fractures in the fabric of the network, and additional
costs being incurred."

Axel Pawlik, Managing Director of the RIPE NCC states: "IPv6 is vital
to the Internet economy. In order to sustain this rapidly growing,
global industry, we urge all stakeholders to help accelerate the
widespread deployment of IPv6. We have already seen the EU make a
positive declaration of intent regarding IPv6 planning and we are
confident that IPv6 space will provide a platform for innovation in
IP-based services and applications as long as the infrastructure is in
place.'

Tarek Mohamed Kamel, Minister for the Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology, Egypt, is speaking alongside Geoff Huston at
the OECD Ministerial Meeting. Kamel comments: "The current dialogue on
IPv6 between global governments, business leaders, technical experts
and academics is crucial to ensure that users around the world
continue to benefit from the innovation that new infrastructure and
new Internet space will bring. Our efforts to ensure the free and open
access attributed to the development of the Internet must be continued
so that we can fully realise the benefits in the near future."

###

Notes to Editors

About the Number Resource Organization (NRO)
The NRO serves as a coordinating mechanism for the five RIRs to act
collectively on matters relating to the interests of RIRs.
www.nro.net
About the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)Regional Internet
Registries (RIRs) are independent, not-for-profit membership
organisations that support the infrastructure of the Internet through
technical coordination.There are five RIRs in the world today.
Currently, the Internet Assigned Numbers Association (IANA) allocates
blocks of IP addresses and ASNs, known collectively as Internet number
resources, to the RIRs, who then distribute them to their members
within their own specific service regions. RIR members include
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecommunications organisations,
large corporations, governments, academic institutions and industry
stakeholders, including end users.
The five RIRs are:
AfriNIC - Africa region
http://www.afrinic.net
APNIC - Asia and Pacific region
http://www.apnic.net
ARIN - Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States
http://www.arin.net
LACNIC - Latin America and parts of the Caribbean
http://www.lacnic.net/en/index.html
RIPE NCC - Europe, Parts of Asia and the Middle East
http://www.ripe.net

Each RIR performs a range of critical functions including:
The reliable and stable allocation of Internet number resources (IPv4,
IPv6 and AS Number resources)
The responsible storage and maintenance of this registration data
The provision of an open, publicly accessible database where this data
can be accessed
RIRs also provide a range of technical and coordination services for
the Internet community.
Media contacts:
Renske Law, Blaise Hammond or Lucie Smith, Racepoint Group
+44(0)020 8752 2274/ +44 (0)20 8752 3222
renske.law at racepointgroup.com / lucie.smith at racepointgroup.com/
blaise.hammond at racepointgroup.com

-----------
Vincent Ngundi
Administrative Manager
KENIC - The Kenya Network Information Center
http://www.kenic.or.ke
vincent at kenic.or.ke
[T] +254 20 4450057/8
[C] +254 20 2398036
[M] +254 733 790073
[F] +254 20 4450087

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