"CNGI has given domestic players a chance to prove their competence and test maturity of their equipment," said Wu.

Last year, 25 domestic research institutions and leading companies including Lenovo, BOE and China Netcom formed an industrial alliance to facilitate the commercialization of IPv6 technologies.

Yet, the commercialization of the next generation Internet (NGI) might take years, as CERNET2 is focused mainly on academic research.

Wu Jianping, a professor with Tsinghua University and director of the expert committee of CERNET2, expected IPv6 to gain significant global traction around 2010.

"IPv6 and IPv4 will co-exist for a long time," Wu told China Daily.

"There is huge potential for us to develop more exciting applications," he added.

China had 123 million Internet users by the end of June this year, boasting the second largest Internet population after the United States.

The number of broadband users reached 77 million and there are 788,000 websites in the country, statistics show.

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