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Hyderabad, India, 4 December 2008: IPv4 address space is still readily available to Indian networks, confirms Paul Wilson, Director General of APNIC, one of the five Regional Internet Registries that manage global Internet address resources.
In a workshop at the IGF this week in Hyderabad entitled “IPv6: The solution for the future Internet”, speakers from the local industry voiced concerns that a shortage of IPv4 addresses might be playing a role in slowing Indian Internet growth.
Mr. Wilson assured the audience of the contrary, saying, "Based on a continuation of the current rate of deployment of IPv4 addresses, there are still around two years' supply of IPv4 addresses available. In other words, there is still a large number of addresses available and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that can show a need for those addresses will certainly receive them. APNIC declines very few requests for IPv4 address space, and addresses are equally available to all ISPs, regardless of location."
“In fact, this month, China reached a total of more than 10 "/8s" (each /8 represents nearly 17 million individual addresses). In contrast, this month, India reached one /8 in total.”
"We are seeing that, while there are actually many networks in India, they do not appear to be growing as quickly as the IPv4 allocations to them would seem to suggest," said Mr. Wilson. "This situation reflects industry conditions in India, which are entirely independent of the IP address supply or IP addressing policies".
This statement is supported by APNIC statistics showing that although India ranks second in terms of the number of ISPs requesting address space from APNIC, the space actually being requested by those ISPs is relatively small.
"While it is great to see the very strong interest in IPv6 at the IGF in Hyderabad," said Mr. Wilson, "it seems that India's Internet industry expects IPv6 deployment to be a solution to the relatively slow pace of Internet growth. While IPv6 is an important long-term requirement for all economies, its deployment will make no difference in India if the local environment does not encourage healthy growth of a diverse and competitive Internet industry."
On 5 December 2008, IPv4 and IPv6 transitional issues will be discussed in the main session of the IGF. The Number Resource Organization (NRO), of which APNIC is a member, has issued a statement on the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
The vital role of the NRO and RIRs in IP address management:
http://www.nro.net/news/nro-press-release-ipv6-growth-increases-300-in-two-years