On 24 September 2015, ARIN issued the final IPv4 addresses in its free pool, leaving AFRINIC as the only RIR with an as-yet unrestricted pool of IPv4 address space from which to allocate to its members. APNIC – the RIR for the Asia Pacific Region - was the first RIR to exhaust its supply of IPv4 address space back in 2011 and the RIPE NCC (Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia) followed quickly in 2012. LACNIC (Latin America and the Caribbean) reached its exhaustion trigger level in June 2014.

With ARIN's announcement, it now becomes even more imperative that African governments, network operators and businesses prioritise IPv6 deployment on their networks as well as ensure that their services are available over IPv6 as well as IPv4. The five RIRs have worked with their respective communities over the last decade to ensure that IPv4 exhaustion makes as little impact as possible on the smooth functioning of the Internet. As the supply of available IPv4 address space becomes critically low, more and more new connections will be made over IPv6 as opposed to IPv4. Although there will be a lengthy transition period where both protocols will be used in parallel, the future of the Internet is over IPv6. Unless African networks and businesses also transition, they risk becoming isolated from the global Internet.

AFRINIC's IPv6 Training Courses

AFRINIC offers free training on IPv6 deployment to network engineers, academics and governments throughout the region as part of its capacity building activities. Our IPv6 courses are free and open to all (with AFRINIC members given priorty), are IPv6 Forum (Gold) Certified and fully hands-on, making use of our extensive IPv6 testbed access which gives participants practical experience on real equipment to configure, test and troubleshoot IPv6.

Make Your Voice Heard - IPv4 Allocation Policy

As we head into the next era of the evolution of the Internet, the community is encouraged to review and discuss the current IPv4 allocation policy to ensure that we move forward in the best interests of the AFRINIC region. You do not need to be an AFRINIC member: anyone can take part in the AFRINIC Policy Development Process (PDP). We look forward to your participation on the rpd mailing list and at the upcoming meeting, AFRINIC-23, taking place in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, from 28 November to 4 December 2015, either in person or remotely.