Shortage of web addresses finds Canada unprepared

Incumbents yet to embrace IPv6 protocol

The World Wide Web once had a mammoth 4.3 billion Internet Protocol addresses to offer: enough spots for nearly every adult in the world to log on with their very own device. Now, it’s run out. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which has been warning us of the increasingly shrinking virtual real estate for years, is not fooling around anymore. It says there are just 74,876 of the so-called fourth version of Internet protocol (IPv4) addresses left in North America, and some North Atlantic islands. If a major ISP places a large order, even those might all be gone by the time you read this.

Each web-enabled device, from laptops to smart watches, has a unique Internet protocol number that connects it to other devices on the Internet.

“The final allocations from the central pool went out five years ago (in) 2011, and we’re getting to the end now and it affects organizations in U.S., Canada and about half of the Caribbean,” ARIN president and chief executive officer John Curran told the Financial Post.

Companies looking to get their hands on the last few blocks of addresses available now have to get on an ARIN waiting list, or try their luck in the heated IPv4 transfer aftermarket.

Of course, there has long been a backup plan in place: A new IP protocol, the IPv6 version, is ready to solve the problem with 340 undecillion, or 340 trillion trillion trillion, possible addresses. That’s enough to give everyone on Earth their own list of billions of IP addresses, according to Google.

That should hold us at least for the next few years: Cisco Systems Inc. predicts there will be 24.4 billion networked devices globally by 2019. Canadians will be staring at 382 million devices by 2019, more than double from the current 185 million units.

The trouble is, Canadian firms are far behind in converting to the IPv6 protocol.

Google data show only 0.58 per cent of Canadian Internet users are on IPv6 data compared to 21.6 per cent in the U.S. The Internet Society, a foundation dedicated to improving reliability and common standards, says that it would become increasingly difficult and expensive for network operators and other entities that rely on Internet numbering allocations to obtain new IPv4 address space to grow their networks. “The cost and complexity associated with keeping track of and managing remaining IPv4 address space efficiently will also increase,” the society said on its website.

ARIN, one of the world’s five regional Internet registries (RIR) managing Internet resources, says many companies have already moved to IPv6 to be able to connect more users and grow their business. “If you’re a rapidly growing Internet company connecting users, it’s prudent to connect users using IPv6 so that you don’t have a dependency on getting more IPv4 addresses,” Curran said.

“That’s to eliminate a business risk obviously, because you want to be able to continually grow and add users,” Curran added. The Canadian Internet Registry Authority, which manages the .ca domain, says Canada is trailing behind its peers like the United States, Germany and Switzerland in IPv6 adoption.

“While it is true that IPv4 will be in use for a long time and both protocols can operate in tandem, it is also true that IPv6 will be critical to future development, and Canadian companies should be part of that future,” said Jacques Latour, CIRA chief technology officer.

“Canada is lagging behind our global counterparts in IPv6 adoption, which means that we literally do not have as much space online to innovate,” Latour added.

Small Canadian Internet service providers Xplornet Communications and Source Cable boast IPv6 capability of more than 20 per cent, ahead of bigger rivals Rogers (0.67 per cent), Telus (0.59 per cent) and BCE Inc. (nil), according to the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre.

Telus said some of its customers are already on IPv6, but they will maintain the IPv4 addresses as some websites live in the system.

“Some customers have already transferred over (to IPv6) and more customers are transferring in the coming weeks and months,” a Telus spokesperson said. “We are using both platforms to ensure our customers have the best user experience.”

Rogers Communications senior director for public affairs Aaron Lazarus said the company is “currently in the process of upgrading to be IPv6-capable.”

At Bell Canada, “we haven’t announced any rollout plan yet, we’re already supporting business customers in making their own transitions from IPv4 to IPv6 applications,” spokesman Jason Laszlo said.

Indeed, IPv4 will live on for some time, and may even become a prized commodity. Back in 2011, Microsoft put down US$7.5 million to pick up 666,000 IPv4 addresses from defunct Canadian telco giant Nortel, beating other IT players in a bidding war.

But as a new technology designed to be faster, more secure, less complicated and offer better quality, IPv6 makes business sense, say analysts.

“Short term, you can share IP addresses, go to market to get IP addresses, but longterm strategically, if you want to make sure you got a plan that works, you have to switch to something that has longterm viability and that’s IPv6,” Curran said.