By the end of 1998 there should be 7.36 million subscribers to ISPs according to a report by Australia’s Paul Budde Communications. [IC_ARTICLE_OBJECT [SHOW IC_Article_ID] “table1”] The online audience will continue to consist primarily of businesses and wealthy residents, the report said.
The increasing dominance of national carriers combined with the current economic crisis in Asia will make it difficult for small ISPs to survive in Asia. According to the report, small ISPs will have to offer packages with a strong commercial focus in order to compete with national carriers. The current recession has caused line costs in Asia to swell to 40 percent of overall costs for Asian ISPs.
On average, the report says, there are three users to every ISP account, which results in just over 22 million users in Asia.