Czech Republic a Superpower in the Transition to IPv6

The Czech Republic is the leader in the implementation of IPv6. The Czech Republic, with 8.6 % of websites available over IPv6, is followed by Slovenia (5 %) and Luxembourg (4.6 %).

Prague, 26 April 2012 – According to a recent survey of the European Commission, the Czech Republic has become the world leader in the transition to the next-generation Internet protocol. This is confirmed by data from the CZ.NIC Association, administrator of the .cz national domain and a long-term promoter of the modernisation of Czech Internet and the transition to IPv6. The Czech Republic’s number one position, however, does not extend to the public administration. Unlike the country’s ministries, which are doing well compared to the rest of Europe (one third have already implemented IPv6), local city and municipal authorities are still lagging behind in the implementation of the new protocol.

According to the published IPv6 Observatory study, prepared for the European Commission by the Inno consulting company with the support of the University of Luxembourg and the Beijing Internet Institute, the Czech Republic is the leader in the implementation of IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). The Czech Republic, with 8.6 % of websites available over IPv6, is followed by Slovenia (5 %) and Luxembourg (4.6 %).

“The implementation of IPv6 is essential for the future and further development of the Internet. The transition to this protocol is virtually unavoidable. Europe is probably going to run out of IPv4 addresses already this year. In this we will be following Asia, where administrators report that their stock ran out last year,” says the Chief Executive of the CZ.NIC Association, Ondřej Filip.

The long-term objectives of CZ.NIC include providing support for the transition to IPv6 to public administration bodies. With a government resolution from June 2009, all ministers and heads of other central bodies of public administration committed to ensuring access to their websites via IPv6 by the end of 2010. According to the latest CZ.NIC survey, this commitment to modernisation has been met by more than a third of all ministries and several key institutions such as the Czech Telecommunication Office, Office for the Protection of Competition, and the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre. This situation for regional level, however, is much worse; only websites of the Vysočina and Liberec regions are available over IPv6. Of the 26 websites of statutory cities, not a single one supports the new protocol yet, according to the survey.

“In order to help public administration with the transfer to IPv6, we have participated together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of the Interior in GEN6, a European project for the support of IPv6 access in public administration. As part of the project, our education centre, the CZ.NIC Academy, is providing courses for the IT specialists of the individual ministries, cities, and municipalities free of charge. We also enable public administration to test the accessibility of the individual websites and try out the environment of a real IPv6 network in our laboratories,” adds Ondřej Filip.

The first dates for these courses are set for 3 May and 21 June this year. To increase public awareness of the new protocol, the second World IPv6 Day event will be held on 6 June. For this occasion, CZ.NIC is preparing a one-day, single-topic conference on the protocol. Wednesday 6 June is also the announced date of a definitive transition to IPv6 by major technology players such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing, Facebook, Cisco, and many Internet service providers.

About the GEN6 Project

The objective of the GEN6 project (Governments ENabled with IPv6), supported by the European Commission in the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP ICT-PSP), is to assist public administration in the transition of its electronic services to the new version of Internet protocol, IPv6. The project is being implemented in eight countries of the European Union (Cyprus, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Slovenia, Spain, and the Czech Republic) and Turkey. The Czech Republic is represented in the project by CZ.NIC, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of the Interior.