Internet Service Providers

• Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association, a cooperative broadband providing Internet access in Colorado
• According to TR's Online Census Failure of Free ISPs Triggers First-Ever Dip In Number of Online Users; New DSL Subscribership Lags as Industry Faces Shakeout; Cable Modem Continues To Boom

  Service Category                Number of      Growth During
                                  Customers          1Q 2001
  Paid Dial-Up ISP                49,606,798          7.61%
  Free ISPs (active subscribers)  10,260,000        (19.44%)
  Cable Modems                     4,931,419         18.01%
  Internet TV                      1,204,000             0%
  Digital Subscriber Line          2,404,000          1.97%
  Satellite (new category)            75,000            n/a
  Total                           68,481,217         (0.29%)
  

  Source: TR's Online Census,Telecommunications Reports International

  While the survey found that most traditional ISPs reported slow growth during the usually booming post-holiday online season, Microsoft Network (MSN) saw a 25-percent increase to 5,000,000 in its number of subscribers. Verizon, with a 33-percent growth rate to 720,000 subscribers, was the only major DSL provider to report a significant number of new users, and it surpassed SBC as the dominant DSL provider, as SBC reported a 25-percent decline in the number of subscribers, down to 600,000. Rounding out the top five are Covad, Qwest and EarthLink, according to TR's Online Census. Road Runner, the number-two player in the [cable] market after @home, attributes some of its 63-percent growth rate during the first quarter to the volatility in the DSL market.

• Top 10 Internet Service Providers (by number of subscribers) as of Dec. 1998

  America Online:	15 million
  CompuServe:	2 million
  MSN Internet Access:	1.5 million (estimate)
  AT&T WorldNet:	1.4 million
  IBM Internet Connection:	1 million
  EarthLink Sprint:	1 million
  GTE Internet Solutions:	824,000
  WebTV Networks:	700,000+
  MindSpring:	650,000
  Prodigy:	643,000 (estimate)

• Interactive Services Report reports that in the three months since June 30, 1997,

  Company	Customers	America Online	9,000,000	3%
  CompuServe	4,137,000	-23%
  Microsoft Network	2,300,000	0%
  Prodigy	990,000	1%
  AT&T WorldNet	950,000	6%

• According to Boardwatch magazine, the number of Internet service providers in the U.S. and Canada has mushroomed from 1,447 in February 1996 to 4,133 in August 1997. (Educom, 9/14/97)
• A Sure Bet on Access Fees: More Uncertainty (NYT, 1/28/97)
• Metcalfe, 1/13/97

  There are now [Fall 1996] 3,068 Internet service providers (ISPs) listed in North America. That's a doubling in the past seven months. The average ISP has annual revenues of $637,572 and 13 paid employees, and it provides 199 dial-up telephone ports to 1,844 Internet users.

• Internet service provider comparison service
• "Allconnet is a free, online and call-in service that helps people find, compare and order internet services."
• Consumers Advocate ranking of ISPs. (See about)
• The typical residential line has a utilization of 3 CCS (hundred call seconds/hour), that is, 300 seconds out of 3600. With an ISP, the load increases to 20 to 30 CCS.
• AOL now has somewhere in the area of 20 subscribers per line. 01/29/97
• Boardwatch Magazine recently surveyed thousands of national and regional ISPs and came up with an average figure of 9.26 users per modem. 1/31/97

Last updated by Henning Schulzrinne