Many large corporations have finally realized the market potential for providing Internet services. While they concentrate on providing packages for small and large businesses, the major consumer online services such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy have been selling hard to the individual market. Even while the corporate heavyweights jumped into the Internet ring, the number of small Internet access providers has exploded. Some predicted that big corporations would swallow the hundreds of small Internet access providers as soon as they realized the market potential. That may begin to happen this year, but more likely, the number of users served by smaller Internet access providers will increase.
Consumers seem most interested in full service, cheap rates, and reliable access.
Often, the small local access provider may be able to deliver on all three counts better than larger providers who are concentrating on providing a national presence. The Internet is both big business and small, and not only in the access business. World Wide Web presence providers, HTML document converters, Web page designers, Internet software start-ups, and Internet consultants are multiplying. Many are hoping for the kind of growth and investment that Netscape Communications Corporation reaped with its record shattering Initial Public Offering. THE NET Judging by recent media coverage, the Internet is becoming almost as popular as the O.J. Simpson trial.