ATCON endorses IPV6 Roundtable, harps on broadband roadmap

The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) has endorsed the Nigeria Internet Protocol Version Six (IPV6) Roundtable 2011.

ATCON is a professional, non-profit umbrella organisation of all telecommunication companies in Nigeria, which was founded since December 10, 1993, as a national trade organisation, with membership drawn from Nigerian and multi-national companies which provide telecommunications and information technology products and services in across the country.
Whereas the forthcoming Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable was initiated by the DigitalSENSE Africa as part of its Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum series in commemoration the World IPV6 Day, which has been slated for Thursday, June 2, at the Planet One, Mary Land Lagos.
The global World IPV6 Day has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 8, this year by the Internet Society (ISOC), the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
The acting Executive Secretary, Mr. Ajibola Olude in a letter of endorsement addressed to the Executive Director, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, acknowledged the support of ATCON.
“I am pleased to convey approval of the National Executive Council,” he declared. Some of the condiments, according to him, include the use of the fact that ATCON endorsed the event on all the conference materials.
While promising that ATCON would broadcast the event to all its members, the President of ATCON, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu has planned to give a goodwill message to the occasion.“ATCON will support the event with some mementos,” he added.
Reacting, Mrs. Nweke commended ATCON leadership for its foresight in recognizing the importance of this latest migration and efforts of DigitalSENSE in stimulating awareness in the IPV6 aspect of the future internet.
Further, she revealed that ATCON president would be presenting a position paper of the group for the stakeholders as a means of internalizing the endorsement among its members.
Meanwhile in the preceding weeks, the duo of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) and Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) have thrown their respective support for the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, scheduled to hold at Planet One on June 2.
President of NIG, Engr. Adebayo Banjo said that his group is pleased to endorse the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable in commemoration of the World IPV6 Day also known as ‘Test Flight Day’.
He also said the IPV6 Roundtable offer a first-class platform for networking to stimulate public awareness on the importance.
More interesting, he said, is the theme for the roundtable ‘IPV6-Join The Players’ scheduled to hold at the Planet One MaryLand, Lagos being organized by the DigitalSENSE Africa, stressing that Nigeria should join the IPV6 world and not wait to do leapfrogging.
NIG in a letter to DSA dated April 15, 2011, Banjo said, they foresee the roundtable as a platform for Nigerian Internet stakeholders in which issues concerning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector issues are raised and addressed with particular reference to the Internet Protocol version 6.
He, therefore, solicits the support of all Internet stakeholders to take active participation at the roundtable.
Equally, NIRA, in its letter of endorsement signed by the Head, Corporate Services, Ms Ugo Akiri commended DigitalSENSE Africa for the foresightedness in enlightening Nigerians on Internet-related developments.
She noted that this is coming shortly after the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance and Development (IGD).
NIRA, she also said, has every reason to back the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable and enjoined members of the association to actively participate in the event scheduled for Thursday June 2, this year at Planet One under the chairmanship of the former Minister of Communications, Chief Olawale Ige, who doubles as the chairman, board of trustees, Nigeria Internet Group.
Reacting to these development, the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, applauded both organisations for the endorsements.
She noted that following the recent allocation of the last batch of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) it has become imperative for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and Nigeria cannot afford to be left out.
“The Internet is now the global communication network and to join this evolution, Nigerian stakeholders need to integrate IPv6 in all areas,” she said.
Mrs. Nweke pointed out that based on the abovementioned, the Internet Society (ISOC), the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) came up with the World IPV6 Day, which this year would be commemorated on Wednesday, June 8, 2011.
She explained that why Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable is holding on Thursday, June 2 is to drum support for the global commemoration on June 8.“We needed to get this earlier so that our people would start in good time to prepare their minds for the test-flight day,” she declared.
The Roundtable, she said, would stimulate public awareness on the importance of the World IPV6 Day also known as ‘Test Flight Day’ in addition to providing networking opportunities.
On June 8, she noted that the World IPv6 Day is a strategy to encourage successful migration to IPv6 through participation of some key Internet Service Providers like Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight networks to offer their contents over IPv6 only for a 24-hour period.
“The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – regulators, operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders; to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out,” she said.
Further, she urged Nigerians, especially the industry players to maximize the opportunity to showcasing their plans for IPV6 migration in Nigeria.