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Korea Increases IPv6 Address Number to 10 Million by 2010 2007/01/10 By Kwon Gun-ho The Ministry of Information and Communication is set to increase the number of IPv6 addresses, the next generation Internet Protocol, to 10 million by 2010. To that end, it plans to encourage IMv6 registration by improving the related system, developing business models and disseminating information. The Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had set up an advisory board consisting of experts including businessmen, professors, researchers and government officials for promoting the registration of IPv6 addresses, and arranged the schedule for the performance analysis and evaluation of the existing IPv6 project and making a future plan for 2007. It intends to pursue the development of various technologies including flow-based mobile router and control server, and transfer them to private sector in support of their commercialization. The Ministry also seeks to exploit various contents for spreading IPv6 through pilot projects and link with the e-government communications networks to convert the IP address of public services into IPv6. In particular, it will secure more than 200 thousand registered IPv6 addresses this year by establishing a favorable environment for IPv6 registration through public wireless networks. 　 Also, the Ministry will improve the related systems by primarily assigning IPv6 addresses to public agencies which ask for a new IP address so as to introduce IPv6 in the public sector first, and allow IPv6 addresses only in registering the Domain Name System (DNS) unless there are special reasons, thus nurturing the equipment industry. "This year will be critical to spreading IPv6 addresses, so we plan to increase IPv6 address number to 100 million by 2010 and encourage public services to register IPv6 addresses by successfully pursuing the equipment development, pilot projects and disseminating information,” said Ahn Geun-young, team manager at the Ministry. Meanwhile, according to its last year project results, the Ministry developed and commercialized a total of eight IPv6-based technologies including router and home gateway, and secured 100 thousand registered IPv6 addresses by providing 20 pilot services through IPv6 pilot projects. IPv6 adoption rate of telecom operators also reached 11.3 percent. However, some public services have been found to be negligent in creating market for domestic equipment and lack awareness for the need of IPv6 conversion.