6

It is estimated that as of September 1998 some 148 million people world wide are online (survey, quoted in CAIP, 1998, p. 24). By comparison, there were 745 million telephone lines in the world in 1996 and 135 million mobile cellular subscribers (ITU, World Telecommunication Indicators Database). Note, however, that in 1995, there were 1,307 million television sets in the world, according to the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).