New access providers (MCI, the regional Bells, online services) will offer cheap nationwide Internet access, sharply increasing the number of people going online by about 1997.

Accurate ●●●●●

“They are going to provide nationwide coverage at extremely competitive rates. It's going to be really revolutionary in terms of the number of people who will be going online.”

Said on: 1 June 1995 · Smithsonian Institution oral history interview by David K. Allison, 1995, logged in the Elon/Pew Predictions Database. No window stated ("this is the year that it is really changing"); inferred about 2 years.
Source: Marc Andreessen, Smithsonian oral history (Imagining the Internet predictions database) · Elon University
Should come true: by 1997
How sure they sounded: going to
Categories: Technology
Importance: 3 of 5 · Mass consumer Internet access transformed communication in the US.

Outcome

Accurate Happened 31 December 1996.

Telcos and ISPs rolled out cheap nationwide dial-up in 1995-96 and AOL switched to flat-rate unlimited access in December 1996; Pew found Web use among online Americans rose from 21% (1995) to 73% (1996) and ISP subscriptions roughly doubled, a surge within the inferred ~2-year window.

Evidence:

History

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