HYDERABAD, INDIA: It is a misconception that IPv4 is not available to Indian networks, said Paul Wilson, director general of the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), while addressing Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hyderabad recently.

It is widely accepted that the current pool of unallocated IPv4 address space will soon be completely exhausted and that the deployment of IPv6 is an important solution for all economies.

"Based on a continuation of the rapid and accelerating deployment of IPv4 addresses, there are still around two years supply of IPv4 addresses available," added Wilson. "In other words, there is still a large number of addresses available, and ISPs which can show a need for those addresses will certainly receive them."

"In fact, this month, China reached a total of more than 10 /8s (nearly 170 million addresses). In contrast, this month, India reached one /8 in total."

In a workshop entitled "IPv6: The solution for the future Internet", at the IGF in Hyderabad, speakers from the local industry raised questions about whether a shortage of IPv4 addresses is playing a role in slowing Indian Internet growth.

India ranks second in terms of the number of ISPs receiving addresses from APNIC, but ranks sixth in total allocations of IPv4 in the Asia Pacific region.

"We are seeing that while there are actually many networks in India, they do not appear to be growing as quickly as ongoing IPv4 allocations to them would seem to suggest", added Wilson. "This situation reflects industry conditions in India which are entirely independent of IP address supply or IP addressing policies".

"It is a concern to me that Indian IPv4 address allocations remain so low," said Wilson. "Addresses are available equally to all ISPs that request them, regardless of their location, and APNIC declines very few requests for IPv4 address space."

"There is still a large number of addresses available, and ISPs which can show a need for those addresses will certainly receive them. It is great to see a strong interest in IPv6 at IGF in Hyderabad. ever, it seems India's Internet Industry sees IPv6 as a solution to the relatively slow pace of Internet growth. On the contrary, IPv6 will make no difference in India if the local environment does not encourage healthy growth of a diverse and competitive Internet industry."