By 2003, Jupiter Communications expects 13 million US households to use free ISP services. Of that group, 8.8 million will use the free ISP as their primary access to the net, representing 13% of the total US online consumer market. Jupiter doesn’t believe free ISPs will replace the traditional paid access model, but expects that they will open the door to more flexible offerings from ISPs and provide new opportunities to affinity groups. Consumers perceive free services as a niche offering, explained senior analyst Zia Daniell Wigder. Most online consumers are more concerned about download speeds and reliability than cost… We expect free ISP accounts to mirror the trend of free email. Consumers will maintain several free ISP accounts simultaneously, but are likely to use only one or two on a regular basis. Many of the free ISP subscribers will be duplicates. รก
