Korea’s next-generation internet usage rate is 29%... France at 86%, Japan at 62%

[Financial News] Eighteen years have passed since Korea urged the international community to adopt IPv6, the next-generation internet addressing system, early. Yet the country’s domestic usage rate has failed to reach even the global average, according to new figures. While major countries such as France and Japan are accelerating their transition to IPv6, Korea’s usage rate has actually fallen from a year ago. Concerns that insufficient connections between telecom carriers’ networks could force domestic data to take detours through overseas networks have also been raised, adding to calls for the government to reassess its transition strategy.
On the 15th, an analysis by Cho Kyung-tae of the ruling People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, of data from APNIC Labs, a research institute under the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), found that Korea’s IPv6 usage rate stood at 29.0% as of the 11th. That was 14.7 percentage points below the global average of 43.7%.
An IP address is like a “home address” assigned to a device connected to the internet. The existing addressing system, IPv4, can create about 4.3 billion addresses, but the supply of new addresses has become limited as the number of smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) devices has grown. IPv6, which replaces it, offers a virtually unlimited number of addresses and is regarded as a foundation for the hyperconnected era.
IPv6 usage rates in major countries were higher than Korea’s: 85.7% in France, 76.8% in India, 73.0% in Germany, 61.9% in Japan and 61.8% in the United States. Korea’s rate was down from 31.1% a year earlier. The gap with the global average also widened, from 6.3 percentage points in December 2017 to 14.7 percentage points.
Korea once led the “Seoul Declaration,” which encouraged the early adoption of IPv6, at the OECD ministerial meeting held in Seoul in 2008. But 18 years later, its usage rate remains below the global average, prompting calls for a faster transition to the next-generation addressing system.
Cho pointed to problems connecting IPv6 networks between telecom carriers as a reason for the slow transition. Networks must be connected for users of different carriers to exchange data. He explained that if connections are insufficient, data exchanged between users in Korea may also travel through overseas networks, lengthening transmission routes and potentially increasing costs.
The government and industry have been working to connect IPv6 networks since the 2010s. In 2017, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said it would support the development of a system to resolve billing settlement issues arising from data transfers between carriers and expand the scope of network connections. However, citing industry accounts, Cho noted that connections across all network segments have still not been completed.
When the government drew up its IPv6 expansion roadmap in 2014, it estimated the total cost of transitioning the country as a whole at 821.5 billion won. Of that amount, 613.9 billion won had already been invested by the end of 2013. Cho said that, given the substantial investment made to build the infrastructure, it is necessary to check whether it is leading to wider actual use.
According to a KISA survey at the time, IPv6 readiness stood at 94.7% for backbone networks, the core of telecom networks, and 68.9% for subscriber networks, which connect to users. Cho stressed that completing connections between carriers, as well as building the networks, is necessary to maximize the benefits of past investment.
Cho emphasized that “IPv6 is foundational infrastructure underpinning national digital competitiveness in the AI and hyperconnected era,” adding, “KISA must accurately assess the current situation first, then work with the government to draw up a new transition plan—including IPv6 interconnection between telecom carriers—and see it through to the end.”

[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter