The number of ADSL users reaches 1,630,000, 910,000 more than last September. The increasing rate is 127%, the top of every wide band technology of our nation. Therefore, internet has become an indispensable allying tools in our life. In various fields, such as information media, education learning, on-line service, knowledge acquisition, communication, computer games and so on, people reach their goal quickly by internet. Besides, the internet boost up the development of people’s knowledge, grow infinite profits, and establishes the international market position for Taiwan.

In recent years, various nations spare no efforts to develop internet. And by the efforts of industry, government, and academic research, Taiwan not only researches and invents various digital but produce rich achievements in internet industry construction. According to the survey of eTForecasts, the number of internet users in the world will be over 665,000,000. Compared with 533,000,000 users in the end of 2001, the increasing rate is 24%. In view of country, the top users are Americans, and followed by Japan, Mainland China, Germany, England, and so on. Taiwan ranks the 15 place.

To assist various circles in our nation to grasp the applying condition of internet in our nation, the ECRC-FIND of E-Commerce Resources Center launches “ The Statistics Of The Internet Users In Our Nation” in every season, to collect and arrange the data given by the main ISP in our nation and to analyze and calculate the key index information of internet application in our nation. Therefore, from 2002, this center would start to edit the Taiwan ISP Annual. I hope we can provide our people with the actual condition of internet industry and valid data. This is our unstirkable responsibility.

Internet industry is one industry, which changes all the time. In order to make the annual data more perfect, and improve the quality of this publication, we entrust Correspondence Periodical to assist in editing and publishing this year’s annual. In January, we stated to collect data. In February, we publish this annual without charge. The content arrangement of “2001 ISP Catalogue” emphasizes on not only the deep report of “the latest trend of telecom and network technology,” but also the tracing back on the general condition in Taiwan market. Also, this annual collects the important news of domestic and foreign industry, and provides with information about 2003 activities. Most important of all, ISP plays a very important role in internet development. Therefore, I hope that the publication of ISP Annual can make domestic internet users be more clear about the condition of internet construction industry in our nation.