A private Internet street will now cost $50 a year

Article Abstract:

Starting Sep 14, 1995, Internet users will be required to pay for their domain names. Network Solutions will charge $50 annually for every domain name a company, individual or service owns on the Internet. Those who fail to pay the fee will receive no mail, will have their World Wide Web pages blanked out. If payment is not received within 60 days, the user will have the name taken away from them. Most users will not be affected, since they get Internet access through a service or employer who must maintain the domain address. The government subsidized the assignment of names on the Internet, since it was mostly for government and academic research. Network Solutions later contracted to assign the domain names. As the Internet became commercial, the request for domain names increased, reaching a peak of 3,600 a month in Dec 1994. Taxpayers should save about $5 million a year as a result of the policy shift. Over 118,00 commercial domain names exist on the Internet and are marked by .com as the last element of their addresses.

Information services, Information services industry, Network Solutions Inc. (Herndon, Virginia), Online Service Information

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On the Net: another survey of Internet users is out, and this one has statistical credibility

Article Abstract:

A survey reveals that 24 million adults in the US and Canada, or 10.8% of the population of the two countries, accessed the Internet in the three months preceding the survey, a figure that demonstrates the Internet is reaching mass-market use more quickly than expected. For purposes of the survey, 'adults' are those 16 years of age or older, and 2.5 million of them bought products or services from the Internet or the World Wide Web. Adult users with direct Internet access spend five hours and 28 minutes on the Internet on average, the same amount of time adult audiences spend watching videocassettes. Some 64% spend some time on the World Wide Web. A total of 37 million people have Internet access, either through direct access or indirectly through an online service, a friend or colleague. Most users connect to the Internet from work, not from home, and only 17% access the Internet more than once a day.

Usage, Technology overview, World Wide Web

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An 'all you can eat' price is clogging Internet access

Article Abstract:

Flat-rate pricing for Internet access is causing busy signals and slower service as customers take advantage of the savings by staying online longer. Competition among Internet service providers has led to the abandonment of hourly rates in favor of a $19.95 per month access charge. When America Online, the largest Internet provider, switched to a flat rate on Dec 1 1996, its customers increased their daily online sessions by one-third and extended the duration of those sessions by 20%. The congestion resulting from these increases has also grown exponentially. Because it is more difficult to connect to the Internet, customers are using special software to maintain their connections even when they are not at their computers. These programs thwart the efforts of service providers to disconnect lines on which no activity is detected after a few minutes.

Internet/Web overview, Internet access

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