The World Wide Web is set to run out of address numbers by 2005, the EU warned on Thurs-day, calling on governments to take a serious look at a new scheme called Internet Protocol version 6 (Ipv6).
Though most users never notice, every computer connected to the Internet is given a numerical address.
But with only 4 billion available, the system is like a telephone exchange running out of phone numbers. IPv6 provides for "more locations in cyberspace than there are grains of sand on the world's beaches," said the commission.
IPv6 will provide a "quantum leap in the number of Internet addresses available for the foreseeable future," the officials said.
There will even be enough numbers for mobile phones, home appliances and car navigation systems to connect up with their own addresses.
"The importance of IPv6 to European competitiveness in general cannot be overestimated. Europe needs to match its first-class research with political commitment to make IPv6 happen," said Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for the Information Society.
The current standard used when computers exchange data -- known as IPv4 -- is hitting old age, according to the commission's Internet experts.
It was conceived in the 1970s and only 4 billion numbers are possible.
"Today, that is not enough to provide each person on the planet with one address," the commission warned, adding that the situation is made much worse by the fact that IPv4 addresses are not distributed evenly.
About 74 percent of the IPv4 addresses have been assigned to North American organizations, with two US universities -- Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- each having more than China.
"Without the `IPv6 upgrade,' the Internet will inevitably degrade under the mounting pressure of new users and growing traffic, while new innovations critical to European competitiveness will be stifled," the commission warned.
The EU executive said it was imperative that Europe's research into the new Internet technology was backed up by a political commitment by EU governments.
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