Business users appear to be consuming mostly bandwidth. Given that they are paying – quite probably at higher rates – this means more self-funded ‘lanes on the Internet highway,’ which in turn may help Internet Service Providers migrate to faster, more cost-effective links and roll out more local POPs (Points of Presence) … The continuing stream of business users into the Internet should help build up the transport infrastructure, providing a growing set of permanent and on-demand alternatives to the current transit solutions (e.g. the CIX and ANS CO+RE). Over time, we can also look to the business community as a major source of demand for pay-for-use information services such as real-time and reference databases (e.g. financial data, schedules, professional and technical texts and publications). How much demand the business community will generate for “user services” is hard to predict.
Predictor: Dern, Daniel
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Meeting the Challenges of Business and End-User Communities on the Internet: What They Want, What they Need, What They’re Doing” by Daniel Dern. Dern, an Internet analyst and writer, is the author of “The Internet Guide for New Users” and “The Internet Business Handbook.” He writes: ”In terms of Internet resources, business users appear to be consuming mostly bandwidth. Given that they are paying – quite probably at higher rates – this means more self-funded ‘lanes on the Internet highway,’ which in turn may help Internet Service Providers migrate to faster, more cost-effective links and roll out more local POPs (Points of Presence). My opinion is that few businesses, other than smaller, Internet-experinced technical users, are placing a heavy demand on the Internet’s user services infrastructure … What this means is that the continuing stream of business users into the Internet should help build up the transport infrastructure, providing a growing set of permanent and on-demand alternatives to the current transit solutions (e.g. the CIX and ANS CO+RE). Over time, we can also look to the business community as a major source of demand for pay-for-use information services such as real-time and reference databases (e.g. financial data, schedules, professional and technical texts and publications). How much demand the business community will generate for ‘user services’ is hard to predict.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Meeting the Challenges of Business and End-User Communities on the Internet: What They Want, What they Need, What They’re Doing
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 214
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne