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Internet address shortage sparks call for upgrade

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Governments and private enterprises on the mainland and in other fast-growing Asian economies are being urged to hasten upgrading of their internet infrastructure, after the global pool of free online addresses was depleted early this week.

The Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (Apnic) considers the rapid expansion of broadband networks and services in Asia during the past decade as the main cause of the shortage of addresses. The mainland uses more internet addresses than anywhere else in the region.

Australia-based Apnic is one of the world's five regional internet registries, which are the not-for-profit organisations in charge of managing the allocation and registration of internet protocol (IP) addresses. These are the unique numerical identifiers that enable computers, smartphones and other devices to communicate on the internet.

'Strict allocation policies are in place to ensure IP addresses are available to those with a demonstrated need,' Paul Wilson, the director general of Apnic, said yesterday.

The online addresses now in scarce supply are based on the old and widely adopted standard called Internet Protocol version 4, commonly referred to as IPv4. It provides for about 4.3 billion IP addresses.

The allocation of the final internet addresses based on the IPv4 standard is equivalent to the last crates of a product leaving a manufacturer's warehouse and going to the regional stores or distribution centres, where they can still be parcelled out to the public.

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