Hop has asked ISPs to quickly build up and release IPv6 action plans which fit the ISPs’ operation and the national plan, carry out experiments on switching the network in order to gradually provide services on the basis of IPv6 to Vietnamese Internet users.

Hop has also asked the members of the taskforce for promoting the use of IPv6 under the Ministry of Education and Training to put IPv6 themes into the training curriculums of electronics, telecommunication and information technology students, so as to prepare the labor force for switching to IPv6 in Vietnam.

The process of switching to IPv6 will include three phases.  First, from 2011 to 2012 will be the preparation period. The second phase, from 2013 to 2015 will be the kick-off period, and the official switching will be carried out in the third phase from 2016 to 2019.

Tran Minh Tan, Deputy Director of VNNIC commented that the decision was released at a critical time when IPv4 addresses are nearly exhausted. He said that the decision shows Vietnam’s strong determination to maintain and develop Internet. The decision also shows Vietnam’s strong determination for international integration in switching from IPv4 to IPv6.

ISPs have been instructed to build up concrete plans and design IPv6 based services to be provided to the community. A meeting of the national IPv6 taskforce will gather in late April, where concrete plans will be set up and concrete tasks will be assigned to ISPs.

Also according to Tan, the most important goal of the first phase of the plan, in 2011-2012 is building up a national IPv6 experimental network and making it ready for ISPs to connect to the network.

To date, Netnam, Viettel, VTC, EVN and SPT have connected to the national IPv6 network, while two big ISPs, namely VDC and FPT have not connected yet.

Besides, in the first phase of implementing the action plan, the specific networks serving the communist party’s agencies and the state’s public administration agencies also need to have IPv6 support. The information technology projects funded by the state budget must pioneer use of IPv6.

A question has been raised that if it is too late for Vietnam to switch to use IPv6 prior to 2020. In reply, Tan said that if Vietnam can fulfill many things after the first phase of the plan, while the world completes the switching to IPv6 by that time, Vietnam will have to switch to IPv6  immediately. However, he does not.

Tan emphasized that switching to use IPv6 is a must, because IPv4 addresses are nearly exhausted. Besides, according to him, what services based on IPv6 ISPs will provide, plus the competition in providing services will have big effects on the switching process. In other words, if ISP still cannot provide services, it will be difficult to successfully switch to IPv6.

Tan thinks that in the immediate time, ISPs will join forces with foreign partners to provide services. Once people get familiar to the services, suppliers will discover good business fields to follow.

Buu Dien