African Network Information Center (AFRINIC) and the Agence Tunisien d'Internet (ATI) have signed an MoU during the AFRINIC-25 meeting in Mauritius this week to formalise their cooperation to further IPv6 deployment in Tunisia and the North African region.

AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources (IPv4, IPv6 and ASNs) on the continent. Phasing out IPv4 and migrating to IPV6 as a result of the agreement will increase the number of internet for Tunisia and its neighbours.

Alan Barrett, CEO AFRINIC lauded the newly signed MoU which commits the parties to cooperation in building awareness, conducting outreaches, training engineers and building capacity for IPv6.

"We are heading in the right direction as far as IPv6 deployment is concerned, but Africa still has a long way to go," said Barrett.

Jawher Ferjaoui, CEO of ATI signed the agreement on behalf of his organisation. ATI will facilitate local training using AFRINIC's IPv6 training course materials. Certified trainers will prepare local engineers for certification under the certi::6 programme.

AFRINIC is one of twelve organisations in the world certified by the IPv6 Forum, a global consortium of Internet vendors established to directly certify engineers. The new partners say that engineers will be able to obtain their certification within one week, although they did not reveal details on pricing.

"Throughout the year, our training team has travelled far and wide delivering IPv6 training courses. AFRINIC and ATI share a joint mission to develop Internet technology skills throughout the region. This MoU is another example of AFRINIC's commitment to strengthening our capacity building efforts and to further highlight the importance of IPv6 deployment training throughout the continent. We are proud to collaborate with organisations such as ATI to spread the message that the time to deploy IPv6 is now," summed Barrett.

AFRINIC says the IPv4 free pool has become smaller as IPv6 allocation continues to increase in Africa with 74/32 equivalents allocated so far in 2016. The body admits however that while many AFRINIC members have an IPv6 allocation, a number of them are yet to deploy it on their networks due to financial restrictions or lack of management support.

The AFRINIC-25 Meeting is one of only two gatherings held annually by individuals and organisations working in the internet field to gather and discuss the policies governing Internet number resource distribution in Africa. The meeting will draw to a close tomorrow afternoon.