The aim of the 22-23 June workshop held at ITU headquarters in Geneva by its Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) was to debate overall implementation of the next IPv6 internet protocol, particularly the following aspects: IPv6 internet overview and outlook, IPv6 real-life ISP deployment, IPv6 resource management, NGN service platform commercial services of carriers, IPv6 network practice and commercial application, IPv6 in other business sectors and commercial services, and IPv6 ? fixed/mobile convergence.
The main goal of the meeting was to foster debate among the various participants in order to demystify the phased and gradual introduction of the IPv6 protocol in the internet, replacing the current IPv4.
With the various policies of containing the provision of IPv4 addresses and using NAT technology, one point made in the discussion was that the scarcity of addresses is not the most urgent reason to migrate to IPv6. The main reason for that migration lies in the possibility of expanding the range of applications that function end-to-end.
The current inexistence of technical problems that hinder immediate migration to version 6 of the IP protocol was also mentioned. Another important reason to begin using IPv6 addresses, especially in developing countries, is the disproportionate distribution of Ipv4 addresses (the United States by itself holds 68 percent of the distributed IPv4 addresses). An ITU proposal is still open, according to which it would also be a local registry, not regional, such as, for example, the RIPE NCC (Europe region).
Finally, at European Commission level the member-States are being increasingly encouraged to adopt the IPv6 protocol as a way to consolidate a better position given the United States? dominance in this area.
Consult the presentations in electronic format, as well as the programme?s workshop, at 
Workshop on IPv6 - UIT-Thttp://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/ipv6/200506/index.html.
