Paul Pierlot < pierlot.paul@ic.gc.ca > presented a survey ( http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/networks ) conducted by Industry Canada (with Catherine Peters < peters.catherine@ic.gc.ca > and Marc Lee < rain@web.net >). This survey provides the ISP industry with intelligence for market analysis. The residential market is the largest source of revenue, but business sections are more profitable. Market segmentation is a successful strategy. Despite strong competition there is still room for small players.

When asked: "What is the interest of your survey for ISP? Does it provide them with a commercial strategy?" He answered: "It does, it provides them with information about how to (for example) benchmark themselves against industry performance. The problems they are facing, are similar to those of others and suppose cooperation in the area where they should act. So it does provide them with information. We hopes the next survey will be even more relevant "

Burkhard Stiller < stiller@tik.ee.ethz.ch > from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) talked about Charging and Accounting for Integrated Internet Services. Traditional Internet provides best effort services. This is going to change. Remaining problems for the integrated service networks include variety of service, number of technologies, emerging integrated services, securing electronic payments. Charging and accounting mechanisms based on economic models are an excellent source for policy making. Today’s transition from phase 2 to 3 is driven by new technology development. The survival of an ISP depends on it getting a minimum number of users. On the other hand to many users produce congestion.

John du Pre Gauntt < johngauntt@pnewire.com > from Public Network Europe (United Kingdom) talked about Financing Internet Bandwidth. The goal is to match speed and reliability to the underlying telecom infrastructure of the Internet. The market for bandwidth is dominated by telecoms. Users have the choice of leasing telecom lines, building their own infrastructure or find the best deal from network providers. There are some possibilities for writing a financial contract about bandwidth. Slowly public markets for bandwidth capacity are beginning.