You're reading: Ukraine could be seriously hit by switch to new Internet address system

The forthcoming global switch to a new system of Internet address assignment, the so-called IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6) threatens to cause Ukrainian Internet providers serious problems, the Director of the Ukrainian Traffic Exchange Network UA-IX, Serhiy Polischuk, said.

"Only 3 percent of Ukrainian providers have got IPv6 addresses. This is the lowest rate in Europe," he told Interfax-Ukraine.

On February 1, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) distributed the last 80 million IP addresses in IPv4 space among five regional administrators. As expected, by autumn 2011 all of them will be transferred to local providers and there will be no available IP address. Because of this, the global Internet community plans to switch to new system of addresses.

The International Day of IPv6 is scheduled for June 8, 2011. The event is aimed at testing the readiness of the global Internet community for the switch from IPv4 to IPv6. Such famous Internet resources as Google, Bing, Facebook, Yahoo will provide access both via IPv4 and IPv6 for 24 hours.

According to Polischuk, Ukrainian users will have problems with the access to resources in the IPv6 address space, as many providers have not installed new equipment supporting the switch to this protocol.

"It is difficult to estimate the amount of investment during the switch to IPv6. Everything depends on the equipment that has been already installed in networks. Large operators regularly modernize their networks and most likely use routers supporting new protocol," he said.

The expert said that the Ukrainian Traffic Exchange Network UA-IX is holding a tender for the purchase of new equipment and plans to put the IPv6 protocol into operation from April 1.