Australia’s internet services industry will see almost one fifth of its membership disappear over the next six months. According to IDC ‘Australian Internet Service Provider Market, Review and Forecast 1997-2002’, up to one hundred of the current crop of 500 ISPs will go, with medium-sized operations with limited resources at most risk in the short term. IDC Internet analyst Tim Sheedy says the ability of ISPs to make handsome profits from connection fees alone will quickly diminish, and industry players will increasingly need viable online services to stay afloat. By 2002, Sheedy says, there will be 150 or so ISPs in the market, and at the industry will firm up around this level. Revenues, meanwhile, will increase to A$906m by 2002, up from A$252m in 1997.
