| Summary: | By any measure, the growth of the Internet over the last decade has been astounding. It took the telephone seventy- five years to reach fifty million users; it took television thirteen years. It took the Web just five. In a few short decades, the Internet has gone from an obscure technological novelty to something as basic and essential to our lives as electricity. It now connects nearly a quarter of the total world population, having succeeded in reaching the farthest stretches of the globe where simpler necessities, such as clean running water, have not. By 2013, there will be 2.2 billion Internet users worldwide, and the technological trends we are seeing today-rapid-fire growth in broadband, wireless, and video on the Internet- foreshadow an accelerated pace of innovation and breadth of impact that will be felt for generations to come.
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