The world will soon run out of Internet addresses as the number of devices connected to the Web explodes unless organisations move to a new Internet Protocol version, the head of the body that allocates IP addresses said.
Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of ICANN, said only 8 or 9 percent of ipv4 addresses were left, and companies needed to switch to the new standard of ipv6 as quickly as possible.
"We are running out," he said in an interview. "That move really needs to be made, we're seeing this scarce resource run down."
Ipv4, used ever since the Internet became public in the 1980s, was created with space for only a few billion addresses, whereas ipv6 has trillions.
A multitude of gadgets including cameras, music players and video-game consoles are joining computers and mobile phones in being connected to the Web, and each needs its own IP address.
Hans Vestberg, the chief executive of telecoms equipment maker Ericsson, predicted earlier this year there would be 50 billion connected devices by 2020.
Beckstrom said: "It's a big management task and network operations task... but it's going to have to happen because we humans are inventing so many devices that use the Internet now."
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