Industry agrees - IPv6 transition plan needed
Media Release - 15 December 2008
Following a workshop convened by the Ministry of Economic Development, major ICT industry and stakeholder organizations
have agreed on the need for New Zealand to develop a transition plan from IPv4 to IPv6, the next generation Internet
addressing protocol. The transition plan will include education, and identification and removal of roadblocks to IPv6
deployment.
There is growing urgency for the Internet to support both IPv4 and IPv6, which together will offer vastly increased
resources. More than one million new devices connect to the Internet every week and the pool of four billion IPv4
addresses is expected to be exhausted by 2010. IPv6 supports a much larger pool of addresses, enough to assign an IP
address to each grain of sand in a fine layer covering the entire planet.
Internet advocacy group InternetNZ, a key sponsor of IPv6-related initiatives in New Zealand, has agreed to provide
continued support for furthering IPv6 as a national industry initiative under the auspices of the Digital Development
Forum. The forum is a multi-stakeholder initiative designed to promote New Zealand's transition into the digital
economy.
The workshop was held on 28 November in Wellington and saw the formation of an IPv6 Steering Group, which includes
representatives from telecommunications carriers, internet service providers, ICT vendors, and industry and user
associations. A complete list of stakeholder organizations is included at end of this release.
Telecommunications industry consultant Dr Murray Milner has been confirmed as independent convenor for the steering
group. Milner says IPv6 provides much more flexibility in allocating addresses, and will allow Internet growth in New
Zealand to keep pace with the expected worldwide trend.
InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson says the initiative is more than welcomed and indicates increasing
recognition that IPv6 deployment will be a business-critical issue as IPv4 exhaustion looms.
While this is not a Y2K scenario, unless New Zealand has a clear plan for the introduction of IPv6 then there is an
increased risk of Internet black holes developing. “This may mean that communication via the internet may not be
possible in the near future between parts of New Zealand's IPv4-based Internet and certain developing countries such as
China and India, where IPv6-only Internet infrastructure is currently being deployed,” says ISPANZ President Jamie
Baddeley.
Digital Development Council Executive Director Paul Alexander points out that it is not time to panic but it is time for
the ICT industry to get organised and reach out to the wider business community to explain the issue.
CEO of the Telecommunications Carrier’s Forum Ralph Chivers says that progress can only be made with a co-coordinated
and concerted effort across the ICT sector to ensure New Zealand has a timely and trouble-free transition to IPv6.
IPv6 was highlighted in Digital Strategy 2.0, which mirrored the growing urgency expressed in global ICT technical
forums on the need for leadership amongst key industry stakeholders in transitioning to IPv6.
IPv4 was deployed in the mid 1980’s, at a time when billions of Internet connections were never contemplated. IPv6 has
been under development since the mid 1990’s, and currently exists in small pockets around the world.
TUANZ Chief Executive Ernie Newman says that users welcome the initiative and that TUANZ stands ready to take an active
part in educating users once equipment suppliers and the registry have ensured they are fully prepared and have
clarified the major steps users need to take.
Next steps include development of a technical education plan to stimulate IPv6 skills in New Zealand’s ICT and academic
sectors. This will be followed by development of a roadmap for the deployment of IPv6 for New Zealand and a business
sector outreach programme. A national IPv6 Hui anticipated for September 2009 is also planned.
ENDS
Industry organizations supporting the need for a transition plan to IPv6:
• InternetNZ
• TUANZ
• ISPANZ
• Telecommunications Carriers Forum
• Digital Development Forum
• Telecom
• TelstraClear
• WorldXChange
• Orcon
• FX Networks
• REANNZ
• Canterbury Development Corporation
• Kordia
• Cisco
• Vodafone
• Juniper Networks
• Alcatel Lucent
• Braintrust