BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Whenever and wherever you log onto the Internet, you can use a remote control for your electronic home appliances. This picture may come true with the construction of the next generation Internet (NGI).

　　At the on-going session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China released its 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010) and NGI is a major project that China is going to push forward in the next five years.

　　"When the NGI is completed, every Internet user can have an independent IP address and all the home appliances can have their own IP addresses," said Zhang Ju, an analyst with the China Center for Information Industry Development.

　　"Then, people could easily monitor their home appliances through remote control and digital life would become reality," said Zhang.

　　Compared with the traditional Internet, a big advantage of the NGI is that it can provide rich resources of IP addresses to feed the six billion people around the world.

　　The present IPv4 technology used in Internet can merely offer around four billion IP addresses and 70 percent of them have been used up. China has only got 60 million of them, which is about the number in two American universities.

　　This could not match the 110 million netizens in China, said Zhang.

　　NGI, based on IPv6 technology, offers enough IP addresses to satisfy people's digital life. "NGI will bring people into the real digital age and improve our quality of life," said Wu Jianping, professor of Internet technology with prestigious Qinghua University.

　　In Oct. 2003, the American military announced the replacement of IPv4 with IPv6. In Jan. next year, eight NGI networks started to operate. But the industrialization of the new technology has been advancing slowly.

　　Developed nations such as the United States have enough IP addresses, so they are not in a hurry to develop NGI, acknowledged Zhang Hongshi, post PHD student of economics and management with Qinghua University.

　　"As China faces an IP address shortage, the government has been working hard to promote the construction of NGI," he said.

　　China started its first test network of NGI in March of 2004. Last February, the China National Development and Reform Commission released a circular, saying that the government would give strong support to NGI industrialization this year.

　　The new technology would provide a better and cheaper service for clients, Zhang said. As the number of Internet users increase, the telecom operators will activate the unused cables and the speed for Internet surfing will increase over 100 times, she said.

　　Although the government and the businesses are pushing forward the construction of NGI, people in China will have to wait at least three to five years to enjoy the easy access of the new network due to the long industrialization process, Zhang said.