The world will run out of Internet IP addresses in less than a year because of the explosion in smartphones, experts have warned.

Inaction by Internet providers could lead to broken applications and more expensive Internet connections, according to a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

IP addresses do not refer to website domain names, but the unique sequence of numbers used to identify each computer, website or other Internet-connected device.

The protocol used by the majority of web users, known as IPv4, provides only about four billion IP addresses. Currently there are only about 232 million IP addresses left which is enough for about 340 days only, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. – TradeArabia News Service