Brussels, 25/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - A task force formed of European industrialists gathered on Monday on invitation from the European Commission to try and reach a consensus over the strategy to develop for the creation of the next generation Internet protocol (IPv6). Its members agreed on a timetable for meetings. The aim is to avoid that the overloading of the information highways does not jeopardise third generation mobile telephony (3G). According to telecommunications specialists, the rapid increase in the number of Internet users should lead to the exhaustion of the present Internet protocol (IPv4) in 2005. However, technically, it is vital that the IPv6 protocol, faster, be introduced before the launch of 3G telephony, based on the idea that each machine will have its own Internet address.
Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for Information Society, stated that "Europe, in particular, must act quickly to avoid that the constraints of IPv4 jeopardise the achievement of the Lisbon objectives". The Internet protocol (IP) is the individual address of each computer on the network, a number used to identify the packets of date sent by or to a computer. The present version does not allow to store more than 4 billion addresses, a figure that seemed amply sufficient in 1970. IPv6 will increased the storage capacity, in a sufficient manner to provide for 4 billion galaxies, noted its developers. This protocol simplifies access and network changing, it should lead to greater competition.