LACNIC Meets with Colombian Authorities and ISPs to Discuss the New Internet Protocol

This Monday, the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC) will begin a series of visits and meetings with Colombian officials and operators to report on the impending exhaustion of the regional IPv4 address stock and discuss the actions that should be taken to ensure normal Internet growth in that country.

IP addresses are a finite yet vital resource for the proper operation of the Internet, and this year will bring significant challenges resulting mainly from entering a new phase where IP version 4 (IPv4) address availability will be increasingly reduced. In order to make the transition as smooth as possible and ensure continued Internet growth through a safe and stable transition to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) throughout the region, this new phase requires active participation of all stakeholders.

Between 10-12 February, LACNIC will visit government agencies and Internet service providers in Colombia to raise awareness about the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 and the need to deploy IPv6.

More than six out of ten Internet organizations in the LACNIC service region have already received at least one IPv6 address block, the new technology that now is replacing the IPv4 protocol.

According to LACNIC's technical records, Brazil leads the ranking of countries with the most IPv6 assignments, followed by Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.

Today, more than five out of ten Latin Americans have Internet access, and this number is expected to grow over the next 30 months. It is estimated that by 2015 there will be 100 million new Internet users in Latin America and the Caribbean, totaling 355 million users in the region.