UK will run out of web-addresses by 2012 warns Google's Vint Cerf
Google's Vice-President Vint Cerf has used a rare visit to London to highlight an issue which he believes is a clear and present danger to the British internet sector and economy as a whole.
Speaking during his first visit to London in three years he said that the issue was “particularly embarrassing for the UK, which has played such a key role in the development of the internet.” He added that the UK was a long way behind other European countries such as the Czech Republic.
The key to the problem for the UK is how web addresses are assigned in the layer of numbers underneath the .com level. The bulk of the internet is currently based on a protocol known as IPv4. A new version caked IPv6, designed to combat the shortage of addresses has already been established.
But the majority of ISPs have yet to take adopt it. Giving his backing to an organisation called 6UK which aimed to address this issue, Cerf said: “If you don’t do something about this the UK will not be able to reach the rest of the world that’s on v6. It’s a business issue that’s of relevance to every company that uses the internet to do business. The ISP will be reduced to selling telephone services without a telephone number.
“It continues to boggle my mind that the UK hasn’t taken this up as an issue. People will ask why their new smart devices don’t work. All the promises and potential of these devices will fail if the ISPs don’t grasp this.”
Meanwhile the chairman of 6UK pointed out; “There isn’t a single government website that’s IPv6-enabled as far as we know.”
Cerf said what the issue needed was more leadership as opposed to government cash.