From jrobin@atelier.fr Wed Apr 25 23:31:17 2001
Subject: Fwd: FW:  Reuters -RE: European Commission IPv6 Task Force -- Press Release 

This is the first action item I had pre-announced for ISOC: a worldwide
initiative to deploy IPv6!

The EC press release can be found in this url :

http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=
IP/01/591|0|RAPID&lg=EN

Reuters picked it up and an interview was requested:


24Apr2001 BELGIUM: EU task force examines upgrade of Internet.
 17:46 GMT

 BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - Top Internet experts and EU Commission
representatives met for  the first time on Tuesday to discuss how to
upgrade the Internet in Europe, a move deemed vital for  the success
 of third-generation cellphones.
 The main aim of the task force is to ensure a smooth transition to a new
operating standard, being  developed by scientists around the world,
which would provide capacity to connect a greater  number of machines
and provide them with always-on connections and greater security against
hackers.
 The group, which includes Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's founding
fathers, is looking at plans for  the upgrade from the current Internet
 system, the so-called IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), to
 the new, more powerful IPv6.
 "Our objective is to ensure that Europe's competitiveness in wireless
technology is not jeopardised  by the lack of a clear road map towards
 IPv6," European Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen  said in a
statement.
 The Internet, launched in 1983, is running on IPv4 and has never been
upgraded. Under this system,  addresses are embedded in each computer
that are essential for each computer or other device to  communicate
with others on the Internet.
 The IPv4 operating system has a potential to connect about four
billion machines and is operating at  about 60-70 percent capacity.
It is expected to run out of addresses in 2005 as an increasing
 number of devices, from mobile phones to refrigerators, connect to the
Internet.
 The adoption of IPv6 would allow an almost unlimited address space.
 The new protocol would also have embedded security measures to make it
more
difficult for an
 outsider to hack into a machine and would ensure "always-on" wireless
access to the Internet, a function that is essential for future users
of 3G mobile phones.
 Telephone companies are now building high-speed 3G networks that would
allow mobile phone
 users to access online video and other high-capacity services.
 "We expect a billion 3G phones by 2006/07," Latif Ladid, president of the
IPv6 forum and chairman of the industry-led task-force, told Reuters.
"They will each need one IPv6 address."
 The new protocol is seen as essential for the development of 3G mobile
phone telephony, as  pledged by European leaders at a recent summit in
Stockholm, Sweden.  The task force is due to present a report at a Spanish
 EU summit in March next year.
 (C) Reuters Limited 2001.

Source: REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE - WESTERN EUROPE
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE 24/04/2001