A new National Internet Registry (NIR) has been launched in India, following the successful conclusion of talks between the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and the Government of India. The Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN) will be run by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and serve ISPs within the country that wish to sign up.
It is the result of a long collaboration between APNIC and NIXI, with APNIC staff sharing their expertise with NIXI, and NIXI officials putting together an impressive technical installation in preparation for the launch.
The new registry was announced on the final day of APNIC 33, a technical conference conducted in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT 2012).
APNIC Executive Council Chairman, Akinori Maemura said of the announcement, “We are extremely happy that this process is heading towards a positive conclusion; which, on the other hand, is also a commencement of a new relationship. I would like to thank the NIXI team for their support and the hard work they have demonstrated in making this a reality.”
APNIC is an open, membership-based, not-for-profit organization that serves as the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) for the Asia Pacific.It is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) charged with ensuring the fair distribution and responsible management of IP addresses and related resources. IP addresses are how are device is identified when connecting to the global Internet and responsible management is required for the stable and reliable operation of this.
The NIR will streamline access to resources for current or future network administrators and so assist the Indian Internet that is currently experiencing a period of extraordinary growth. Director General of APNIC, Paul Wilson commented, ”We welcome the new National Internet Registry in India to the APNIC community. The Internet is a global community and IRINN, as the NIR is being called, should be part of that. I hope that many new Internet Services Providers will be formed in India, and they will always be able to choose between IRINN and APNIC for IP addresses. The market here is big enough and that kind of diversity will ensure better services and lower prices for all Indians."
APNIC has over 300 members locally, mostly Internet Services Providers and Telecommunication Communications companies, and over 6 million Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses were allocated in 2011. There are already 6 National Internet Registries in Asia in South Korea: (KISA KRNIC), Japan (JPNIC), China (CNNIC), Indonesia (IDNIC) and Vietnam (VNNIC). This is out of 56 economies in the Asia Pacific region.
“It’s really about what is a better fit for the individual organizations. Typically we tend to see larger organizations prefer a regional service especially those who operate in multiple economies to maintain an account with APNIC.” Says Director General, Paul Wilson. 