IPv6 Tests being conducted in Asia:
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The next-generation Internet kicks off in Asia
moneycentral.msn.com
A new Internet protocol, which means new features and flexibility, is now getting a test run -- and proves again the U.S. is running behind in technology.
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By Mark Anderson
Just to prove how goofy our world news priorities are, here is an SNS Pop Quiz:
Q What critically important event happened in Manila this week?
1.Thousands of angry supporters of ex-president Joseph Estrada broke through barricades and stormed the presidential palace, demanding that he be released from captivity on charges of corruption?
Or:
2. Internet Protocol Version Six began its first large-scale testing?
It's No. 2, of course.
Readers of my newsletter know that some pretty cool high-speed Net tests were conducted between Manila and Japan last year via satellite, as part of the Japanese Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) project. Now WIDE has joined with the eight nations of the Asian Internet Interconnection Initiative (AI3) to test IPv6, the next likely communications standard for the Net. And they aren't doing it in Stockholm or New York City.
The system, which will run on both cable and satellite facilities provided by WIDE during the test, will link Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand.
Average geeks know that IPv4 is running about 99% of the Net right now, and smart geeks know that IPv5 was not intended for commercial use. IPv6 includes a number of goodies currently not available in that dowdy old v4: IP addresses that are up to four times longer, and thereby alleviating shortages of names today; easier hookup routines for novices connecting IP devices; a new multiple-channel environment for integrating mobile/portable devices into home, car, etc. groupings; and related ease-of-assignment of device names.
Haven't blown your socks off yet? How about more effective routing procedures, or increased transparency in data transmission? See, now you're getting excited.
The Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) will again run the Philippine side of this test, bouncing all of these big packets off its WIDE dish to AI3 neighbors. The eight members will use this test bed to further explore the behavior of IPv6 in real world environments, focused upon mobile computing services and applications.
And where is the United States in all this? Ah, you say you want to make a regular old voice-cellular call from New York City to Washington, D.C.? Good luck.
Asian phone numbers
Speaking of making regular cell calls, Gartner Dataquest just came out with last year's numbers for users (in 2000) in Asia. The growth rates, and in some cases the numbers, reinforce an ongoing story in the shifting of cellular momentum away from the Nordic countries, in favor of Asian nations.
Here are the numbers:
Cell subscribers in the Asia Pacific region jumped 52% during the year, from 151 million to 230 million at year-end.
In China, the number nearly doubled, from 43.3 million to 85.3 million. In India, the number was up 97%, to 3.1 million. Philippines were up 132%, to 6.3 million.
Users with mobile Internet accounts reached 34.4 million, up 29% from last quarter, and split between Japan, with 26.8 million, and South Korea, with 7 million.
Although infrastructure and handset markets still belong to the Europeans, this trend will tend to support efforts by Asian manufacturers to enter, and expand market share in, these sectors.
Areas of particular interest, in my view, would include Japanese handset makers, as noted here before (Panasonic, Sharp and Sony); South Korea's Samsung, although the chaebol's finances are not great at the moment; and the Indian cellular market. Although the latter is very small, it is probably time for extended rapid growth. |
