national stats. on ISP qty/size?

Thu Nov 28 18:54:29 UTC 1996

>Anyone know where I can find aprox. stats. on number and
>size of ISP's in north america?  Is this presently tracked
>(guessed at?) anywhere?

Depends on what kind of "ISP" you are interested in.  For dialup,
Boardwatch Magazine <http://www.boardwatch.com> has a quarterly
listing of Internet providers.  If you think the Internet is more
than just dialup, I suggest looking at some more sources.

The Maloff Company <http://www.maloff.com/> has lots of good, but
now out-of-date (February 1996 is ancient for the Internet) information
in their report on the Internet marketplace.  For information on how
part of the non-profit Internet Providers are doing, the 1996 study
on libraries and the Internet released this Fall is a good starting place
<http://istweb.syr.edu/Project/Faculty/McClure-NSPL96/NSPL96_T.html>.
Things are both better, and worse than you've read in the popular
press.

The traditional thinktanks, the Gartner Group, Forrester Research, etc,
also have a number of studies of the Internet, but I can never afford to
even look at their catalog.
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
  Affiliation given for identification not representation