Nigeria to mark World IPv6 Day in Lagos

Arrangements have been advanced for the commemoration for the 2011 World Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) Day in Lagos, come Wednesday June 8.

Disclosing this, the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa, the organizers of the Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum series, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke said that her office is working out plans with interested stakeholders to register Nigeria’s presence as far as the World IPv6 Day is concerned.

She revealed that the event would be hosted under the auspices of Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre Onikan-Lagos in June this year, with the theme: IPv6-Join The Players.

She noted that till date, only 14 institutions have IPv6 in the country, describing this figure as dismal and needed a change of heart and boost from the regulatory agencies across the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and related regulators.

She noted that following the recent allocation of the last batch of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) the enthronement of IPv6 globally cannot be over-emphasised.

“It became imperative for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in all areas,” she declared.

Mrs. Nweke pointed out that the Internet has since become the global communication network and to join this progression, Nigerian stakeholders need to integrate IPv6 in all areas.

“So as to achieve national goals for universal access to telecommunications, information and communication technologies (ICTs),” she said.

She recalled that the Internet Society (ISOC), the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, which include the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) initiated the World IPV6 Day, which this year would be commemorated on Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

“We, at DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA), a team of internationally reputed and award-winning Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry analysts and perception managers; professionally affiliated to several African-based initiatives,” she asserted, stressing that DSA is the organizer of Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum Series has planned to host internet stakeholders in the country to a one-day Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable; to stimulate public awareness on the importance of the World IPV6 Day also known as ‘Test Flight Day’ in addition to providing first-class platform for networking.

Predominantly, she said, the World IPv6 Day is a strategy to encourage successful migration to IPv6 through participation of some key Internet Service Providers like Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight networks to offer their contents over IPv6 only for a 24-hour period.

Further, she said, that the goal of the Test Flight Day would be to motivate organizations across the industry – regulators, operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders; to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

She urged Internet stakeholders to buy into this event by taking active part, especially those who have IPv6 enabled products and services to showcase.

“We urge stakeholders mostly operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders to ensure active participation,” she said.

Nweke explained that the roundtable is expected to attract quality speakers and audience alike, as well as products.

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