Thailand's Internet facilities upgraded to accommodate IPv6

BANGKOK, June 5 (TNA) - The Cabinet on Tuesday approved an action plan of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to introduce the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in Thailand. Deputy Government Spokesman Pakdihan Himathongkam announced the Cabinet's resolution at a press conference, after its weekly meeting, saying that the IPv6 will replace the IPv4, which has been used for a long time and is running out of Internet address numbers. The deputy government spokesman explained that the IPv4 covers about 4 billion Internet address numbers, while the IPv6 contains 340 trillion trillion addresses for computers and devices connected to the Internet. According to the deputy government spokesman, if relevant systems for the IPv6 are completely installed, they will smoothly support mobile Internet usage through 3G and 4G mobile phone services. The deputy government spokesman acknowledged that the introduction of the IPv6 is the biggest Internet revamp in over 30 years, since the first introduction of the Internet in Thailand, and that, within December 2015, government agencies at the levels of departments and higher will connect to the Internet systems which support the IPv6; while all Internet service providers in the country will also make their services compatible with the IPv6 by December 2014. (TNA)