Our very own illustrious and talented analyst Gaurav Kheterpal wrote about the “death of the Internet” a couple of weeks ago here, highlighting how “the Internet finally ran out of IP addresses.” The problem was that the IPv4 addresses online had effectively been exhausted, signified by the allocating of the last Internet IP addresses by the Internet Address and Naming Agency.
As Guarav touched on, this type of thing shouldn’t be much of a problem. The new 128-bit Internet Protocol, IPv6, will open up a pool of addresses a billion times larger than Ipv4. The only foreseeable problem is the rather slim availability of IPv6 support on many networks around the world, but tech heavyweights like Google and Yahoo are already planning their testing phases.
Problem solved, right?
Not if you live in Canada.
According to The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Hooper, the looming shortage of IP addresses is a bigger problem thanks to our tendency to put important things off in this country. Internet investors obviously thought that the four billion or so numeric addresses held by IPv4 would suffice for quite while, but the Internet’s explosive popularity caught many by surprise. As it is now, there’s “almost no room” on the Internet for new computers and gadgets.
To make matters worse, the industry climate in Canada is so damned hostile that the ISPs aren’t cooperating over a solution. Instead, they’re competing.
Canada’s masterful ISPs, in their infinite wisdom, neglected to upgrade their systems (where have we heard this before?) and, as such, we’re left behind the majority of the developed world. The transition to IPv6 is already being planned in most countries, but Canadians may well be forced to “straddle the old Internet and the new Internet.”
This means that old software might struggle in hooking up with new websites and old firewalls will struggle in doing, well, just about anything of value. New firewalls may conversely let in old attacks that wouldn’t work on new systems. Anti-spam software, too, could leave users in a tough spot by not recognizing new or old spamming tactics.
Canada’s monstrous Internet companies are stumbling around a solution, apparently, but they haven’t exactly been generous with the details. Rogers hasn’t provided answers to users and Bell Canada has been equally mum. Surprise, surprise.
So what will happen with Canada’s Internet future? The picture looks overwhelmingly dim, that’s for sure. With just two percent of Internet space left for North American ISPs to claim and Canada’s ghastly providers bickering over usage-based billing and other ways to suck consumers dry, we could be straddling that awkward line sooner than we think.
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Written by: Jordan Richardson. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Aren’t the large ISP’s financially motivated to fix this problem? Not fixing this will hurt their bottom lines, won’t it? And if Rogers comes out with upgraded routers to fix the issue it would leave them in a competitively advantageous position, especially if the others don’t. Right?
Is this really as bad as you make it out to be?
There’s no reason to think they won’t eventually fix this problem and the article doesn’t suggest otherwise, but Canada is dreadfully behind the other developed countries and, as has been pointed out here and elsewhere, will leave many Canadian users “straddling the line” between the old and new.
With that in mind, I don’t think you have to look very far in Canada’s telecommunications industry to see examples of how bad things are. Look at the usage-based billing issue, high costs and the way Canada’s telecom giants deal with rural clients, for example. Or the countless issues related to the CRTC.
To think that this issue would unfold in a particularly “efficient” fashion would be naive given the track record of Canada’s large ISPs.
Hi Jordan.
I am Elise from Rogers social media team. I read your blog post with interest and wanted to note that Rogers has been working on IPv6 plans for quite some time. Our ultimate goal is to limit the impact of the transitions for customers so we’re working on it, reviewing use cases and scenarios, identifying glitches and working out solutions.
If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact me on Twitter – where I am @RogersElise
Elise
The problem will increase day by day because of Internet users increasing each and every day,it may cause the problems over Internet.
Thanks
IP Line Canada
IP Phone System Vaughan