Internet has now less than 3% free space

The Internet is running out of free space required for addresses allocation. The question has been raised for a long time to date but many ISPs seem to be little concerned about the problems that may arise in near future. ARIN and RIPE, which administer IP addresses on either side of the Atlantic, each received two /8 address blocks in November. A fifth block went to their African equivalent. Thus, there are only seven /8 blocks - 2.7 per cent of the total of 256 - unallocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

In mid-November, Vint Cerf, a key figure in the development of ARPANET, the forerunner to the internet, said: "There's no question we're going to be out of address space by springtime of 2011."

Now these terms were trimmed to closer dates.

Trefor Davies, CTO of business ISP Timico said: "I will need to revise my exhaustion date but February is either looking good or too late."

For internet users, any effects are not likely to be felt until IPv6-only services start appearing. If ISPs haven't upgraded their networks by then, those parts of the internet will be inaccessible to their customers.