We apply for jobs over the Internet. We check the cinema times, and reserve seats on airplanes over the Internet. We even fall in love over the Internet, although we do not yet know whether the Internet divorce rate will be higher or lower than is normal. There are 43 million web sites on the Internet, and few major retail businesses in America today operate without a web site. Those businesses work directly with their customers, eliminating costly layers of brokers, wholesalers and other middlemen.
Electronic democracy is very alive over the Internet.
Out of 535 members of our Congress, only a few do not have web sites, and these representatives are from states or districts where their elections are uncontested. That tells you something about the power of this medium. But for the Internet economy to develop to its full potential in your country and mine, there must be an available, affordable broadband telecommunications infrastructure. As you know, this will only happen when there is true and full competition in our communications networks. That, really, is the blueprint that we think will help these networks thrive and succeed, and it is a vision shared by many of us in America and, I m pleased to say, by many in Europe also.