<h1>Africa hopes to leapfrog other regions in IPv6 adoption</h1>
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Rebecca Wanjiku
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07.07.2009 kl 19:13 | IDG News Service</div>
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<p id="artLead" class="articleMagazineLeadText">Africa's lag behind
other regions in technology may actually serve to ensure a faster
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) adoption</p>
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<p>Africa's lag behind other regions in technology may actually serve
to ensure a faster Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) adoption.</p>
<p>The pool of available IPv4 addresses is expected to run out by 2011
because of global broadband uptake and the expected growth of Internet
access in Africa.</p>
<p>Other regions have been slow to adopt IPv6 because of huge
investments in legacy systems and the lack of clear business gains from
adopting the new version, but many African countries have few or no
such headaches. In Africa, the main reason is a lack of actual
investment in technology as well as a lack of awareness from existing
ISPs and other businesses in the chain.</p>
<p>"The rate of IPv6 adoption in Africa seems to be higher than in
other regions. It seems that this may be an area where being behind can
help us get ahead," said Calvin Brown, a director at UniForum, the
administrator of the .<a href="http://co.za">co.za</a> domain name.</p>
<p>The move to raise awareness about the next-generation Internet
Protocol has taken concerted efforts between governments, regional
bodies and the private sector. </p>
<p>The Internet Society (ISOC) and AfriNIC, a coordinating body that
allocates IP addresses and related autonomous system numbers to
carriers and enterprises in Africa, have been conducting technical
training on IPv6 while governments and ICT stakeholders in specific
countries raise awareness within those nations.</p>
<p>"ISOC is working with AfriNIC to ensure that the critical Internet
infrastructure like Internet eXchange Points and country code Top Level
Domains are IPv6-ready," said Michuki Mwangi, ISOC senior education
manager.</p>
<p>AfriNIC has set up a virtual IPv6 lab that is used by educational
institutions in Africa as a testbed to increase IPv6 hands-on
experience in the region. According to AfriNIC, IPv4 allocations have
been on the decline and countries have started taking up IPv6, while
Kenya and South Africa are leading in IPv6 allocations.</p>
<p>Kenya is also one of the countries leading in IPv6 awareness and
adoption -- the .ke domain registry is IPv6-capable, and the registry
managers are working with the government to train and sensitize on the
need for IPv6 adoption.</p>
<p>"Kenic, the .ke registry operator, deployed IPv6 to the .ke name
servers in 2006 and has been running a test bed since 2005," said
Vincent Ngundi, administrative manager at Kenic. The Kenyan government
has insisted that IPv6 adoption is a top priority and set up a national
task force to set strategies for awareness, capacity building, research
and development, IPv6 implementation, and deployment and policy issues
that should be put in place.</p>