Internet Access Numbers Explode
(10/22/97; 12:20 p.m. EDT)
By Margie Semilof, Computer Reseller News
Gut instincts that the Internet access market is growing at a
frenzied pace are nobody's imagination.
According to a study published by consultancy Maloff Group
International, from April 1996 to October 1997, the ISP
marketplace exploded, growing to $8.4 billion from an estimated
$1.9 billion.
In March 1994, the ISP market was calculated to be about $50
million, according to Maloff. In 1995, it was estimated at $150
million.
At these rates, Maloff Group said it predicts the market should hit
$10.8 billion by April 1998 and exceed $14 billion by October 1998.
Joel Maloff, president of Maloff Group, in Dexter, Mich., said the
figures include ISPs such as Uunet Technologies and GTE
Internetworking, as well as content providers such as America
Online and CompuServe.
Maloff said to reach his figures, he took into account current
monthly figures for the number of customers, the price of the
services, and, for standard ISPs, the percentage for each product
type.
Maloff said he believed the wild growth rate coincided with when
AT&T jumped into the ISP market in a big way, followed by other
super-sized service providers.
"They [AT&T] sort of legitimized the market," he said. "Then all
the other telcos jumped in. WorldCom started buying up the
market, and IBM is quietly growing its Internet access business.
That's a lot different than pitching PSINet against Uunet."
Maloff said the top ISPs this year have changed from recent years.
MCI and AT&T, which were both in the top five in recent years,
have fallen back. The top five carriers contributed $5.8 billion
compared with $449 million in April 1996, according to the report.
The top 10 carriers in terms of dial-up access are AOL,
CompuServe, IBM, Microsoft Network, Uunet, Netcom,
Concentric, Prodigy, AT&T, and PSINet.
Maloff said he is able to identify 20 million dial-up users, but
cannot count the millions of users hiding behind corporate T1
lines.
"It's easy to see the market is over 40 [million] to 50 million
users," he said. "There is also a lot of electronic commerce --
corporations with EDI applications. Intranets and extranets.
Reposted from ASND thread. |
