India will run out of IP addresses by 2010
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 07 May 2009, 15:47 IST
Printer Print Email Email
India will run out of IP addresses by 2010
Mumbai: Although the internet penetration in India is low, the web in the country is running out of the Internet Protocol addresses. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) had 4.3 billion IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses of which, 68 percent have already been allocated and 13 percent are unavailable due to technical issues. It is believed that the IP4 addresses will run out by April 2010, which will make it necessary for users to move over to IPv6, or the next version that supports a total of 16 billion IP addresses, reports Business Standard. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that the fast growth of Internet and likely migration towards NGN (next generation networks) will require IPv6 addresses. In this background, (the) creation of a National Internet Registry (NIR) is urgently required. The Indian IT industry is yet to gear up for the IP version upgrade. Sify Technologies, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Bharti Airtel are some of the ISPs working on this front. "The important thing is to create awareness among Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on the need to migrate to the new format. A lot of work has to be done, like configuring systems and putting equipment in place that supports the new format," says P K Saji, Senior Vice President (Global Infrastructure Operations), Sify Technologies. He also points out that a further delay would make it difficult for ISPs and enterprise users to seamlessly migrate to IPv6.

siliconindia