In a communication adopted this week, the EU Commission has called for Member States to "put the European public sector at the forefront of deployment by migrating their own internet networks, public sector websites and eGovernment services to IPv6. "

EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding, touted problems with Internet Protocol version 4's (IPv4) address space as the main reason for European public sector and businesses to roll out IPv6. And advised businesses in the EU to get readyh for changes, setting a target of getting 25 per cent of EU industry, public authorities and households to use IPv6 by 2010.

"In the short term, businesses and public authorities might be tempted to try to squeeze their needs into the strait jacket of the old system, but this would mean Europe is badly placed to take advantage of the latest internet technology, and could face a crisis when the old system runs out of addresses," said Reding.

Devices needing access to networks usually require an IP address certified by the network they are connecting to. Currently IPv4 can have 4.3bn unique IP addresses - defined by a 32-bit number, but IPv6 can scale theoretically to a number of IP addresses - defined by a 128-bit number.

The timeline for a global rollout is currently undefined although the US Department of Defense has mandated US government networks to move to IPv6 by 2008. While Reding warned that if Europeans are to use the latest internet devices like smart tags designed, for example, for intelligent heating and lighting systems "we face a thousand-fold increase in demand for IP addresses."

The Commission also said that it wanted "the most important websites of Europe to take the lead," and said it would aim to receive commitments from at least 100 top European website operators before the end of 2008.

A further commitment was that the EU's own website "europa.eu", would be IPv6 accessible by 2010.

Reding's call comes a week after an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on IPv6 said, "One of the major challenges for all stakeholders in thinking about the future of the Internet is its ability to scale to connect billions of people and devices."

The OECD report recommends that the way forward globally is for those, " Working with the private sector and other stakeholders to increase education and awareness and reduce bottlenecks," and to demonstrate government commitment to adoption of IPv6, whilst "pursuing international co-operation and monitoring IPv6 deployment."

The Commission is hosting an IPv6 launch event in Brussels on 30-May to present their plans for, "accelerating the deployment of IPv6 in Europe".