of SALVADOR KWINIKA in cape town
CAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) – The first regional white paper on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) on the African continent has revealed how Africa is falling behind the rest of the world in deploying this technology.
By October 2022, the global IPv6 deployment rate was 40 percent. However, IPv6 development across countries is uneven, especially in Africa, which is well below the global average at just 5 percent.
The findings were released at the joint launch of the “White Paper on IPv6 Development in Africa” by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), the African Union (AU), and Huawei.
It was launched in Cape Town during the fourth Africa Broadband Forum at AfricaCom 2022, the continent’s largest ICT conference.
“IPv6 must be addressed urgently,” said John Omo, Secretary General of the ATU.
“Otherwise we risk being cut off from the world,” he added.
Omo said that the migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is one of the most pressing needs facing the continent.
“Because of historical advantages, the world has had a head start when it comes to building a digital ecosystem, and the continent needs to catch up,” Omo added.
Omo called for alliances between the various sectors of the Internet community.
Experts point out that with the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT), industrial Internet and artificial intelligence (AI) services, the shortage of IPv4 addresses is becoming more and more serious.
IPv6 has enough addresses, good scalability, and high security.
Anderson Amlamba, Director of the UA Management Information System, detailed the global consensus on the importance of IPv6.
He highlighted that the IPv6 industry ecosystem had matured in terms of terminals, networks, applications and cloud platforms.
“IPv6 enables innovation and much more technology-driven development,” he explained.
“The value chain, including content and devices, is ready, but the missing part is the network,” said Amlamba.
He further noted that as Africa seeks to accelerate IPv6 development, governments should take the lead in formulating IPv6 strategic plans and policies, and promoting IPv6 organization, industry, ecosystem building and talent cultivation.
“IPv6 adoption has to be policy-led,” he said.
“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get IPv6 adoption across all the different sectors and industry verticals,” Ammlamba said.
The objective of the whitepaper is to provide guidance and reference for the innovation and development of IPv6 technology in Africa and further accelerate the construction of the digital infrastructure of the network.
“IP is the only technology that can multipoint to multipoint,” said Ryan Zhao, CTO of the Middle East and Africa region of Huawei’s Data Communications Product Line.
He described IP as the cornerstone of digital transformation.
– CAJ News
