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One billion to surf the Net by 2005
Wednesday, February 07 2001
by Rory Kelleher


The number of people using the Internet will pass the 1 billion mark during 2005
according to new research from market research company eTForecasts.



More than 60 percent of Internet users will access the Internet through wireless
devices such as Web-enabled phones and personal digital assistants.

Currently 400 million use the Web and most of the new growth will come from Asia,
Latin America and parts of Europe.

The report predicts that Western Europe will surpass the United States in terms
of the number of people with Internet access. 

Around 96 million Europeans were connected to the Internet in 2000 with but this
will grow to over 240 million compared to 214 million in the United States.

At present only 7 million people in Europe access the Internet wirelessly,
representing around 7 percent of overall Internet users.

By 2005 eTForecasts is predicting that 168 million Europeans or 68 percent of all
Web users will connect to the Internet via a mobile phone or wireless devices. In
the United States alone, 83 million or 40 percent of Internet users will have
wireless access by 2005. At present, around 2 million Americans have mobile
Internet access.

While wireless devices will act as a supplemental access point to a PC in
developed countries, in countries with low Internet penetration wireless devices
will be the primary or only Internet access devices, according to the company.

"The wireless Internet will take off rapidly once always-on service and useful
content for the small displays of wireless devices are available," said Dr Egil
Juliussen, author of the report.

"The rapid take off will be due to millions of 'dormant' or Web enabled cell
phones that are only used currently for voice services," he said.

"As the wireless Internet user experience improves, an increasing portion of
the dormant Web enabled phones will become active wireless Internet devices,"
according to Juliussen.