Business

China is going ahead with the pre-commercial service of its next generation Internet network, a senior government official said yesterday.

The country has built the world’s largest next generation Internet demonstration network, which could offer faster and more secure access with bigger network capacity, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-minister of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The commercial network could reshape the country’s Internet industry and lay a solid foundation for the information technology sector, he said.

In 2003, the State Council approved a plan by eight ministries, led by NDRC, to build the China Next Generation Internet (CNGI) project.

The NDRC has invested 600 million yuan in the project, while enterprises have contributed around 3 billion yuan, said Zhang.

Rising business enthusiasm is an indication that a commercial CNGI success is achievable, said Wu Hequan, vice-president of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

“The CNGI project is a combination of government support and participation from domestic companies. It is quite different from the one in the United States, where next generation Internet focuses more on academic research by colleges and research institutions,” he said.

Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies have already broken the foreign monopoly in China’s Internet sector for key network equipment.

The Chinese firms are now supplying more than half of key equipment used in the core networks of CNGI, Zhang said.

China has been a frontrunner in the race to build the next generation Internet network, but faces intense competition from Western countries.

The EU has set a target to encourage 25 percent of individuals and organizations to use IPv6 networks by 2010.

The United States has also speeded up its IPv6 network deployment this year. The number of IPv6 addresses that the US has applied for has seen it leapfrog to the top rank from the 11th position in the world. China is currently ranked 16.

IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6, exponentially increases the number of possible Internet protocol (IP) addresses available for connecting PCs and other devices to the Internet.

Under the current IPv4 system controlled by the United States, there are mounting fears that the Internet address pool could run dry, especially in Asia, as more and more people connect to the Internet.

Wu said developing CNGI should be a national strategy. And “CNGI will gain much more speed around 2012 when the existing IP addresses are expected to be used up”.

(China Daily December 4, 2008)