RFC 3271 (rfc3271) - Page 1 of 6

The Internet is for Everyone

Network Working Group                                            V. Cerf
Request for Comments: 3271                              Internet Society
Category: Informational                                       April 2002


                      The Internet is for Everyone

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document expresses the Internet Society's ideology that the
   Internet really is for everyone.  However, it will only be such  if
   we make it so.

1. The Internet is for everyone

   How easy to say - how hard to achieve!

   How have we progressed towards this noble goal?

   The Internet is in its 14th year of annual doubling since 1988.
   There are over 150 million hosts on the Internet and an estimated 513
   million users, world wide.

   By 2006, the global Internet is likely to exceed the size of the
   global telephone network, if it has not already become the telephone
   network by virtue of IP telephony.  Moreover, as many as 1.5 billion
   Internet-enabled appliances will have joined traditional servers,
   desk tops and laptops as part of the Internet family.  Pagers, cell
   phones and personal digital assistants may well have merged to become
   the new telecommunications tools of the next decade.  But even at the
   scale of the telephone system, it is sobering to realize that only
   half of the Earth's population has ever made a telephone call.

   It is estimated that commerce on the network will reach somewhere
   between $1.8T and $3.2T by 2003.  That is only two years from now
   (but a long career in Internet years).





Cerf                         Informational