Internet finally means serious business

Before letting me join the conversation, the Trekkies wanted to test my knowledge with a short quiz. I failed immediately when I made a disrespectful reference to Scotty.
There was deathly silence in cyberspace for several seconds. Then the ominous reply: "Set phasers to kill."
Did this huge, worldwide network develop, I wondered, simply for the entertainment of late-night TV watchers and socially inept techno-buffs?
Two years later, here in Poland, I'm finding an answer. Although he probably enjoys Star Trek, Bill Gates spoke about office automation and network servers when he appeared in Warsaw last month to pitch Microsoft products. Business people here know there is money to be made with the Internet - what they are trying to figure out is how to make it.
It is a confusing time to be wandering Internet cyberspace in Poland. Sources say the next year will be crucial in determining which firms live and die in the industry - to call the market unstable is a giant understatement.
Competition among Internet providers is starting in earnest. Until this month, the publicly-owned Scientific and Academic Computer Network (NASK) had the only Internet connections outside Poland. But several private firms have signed deals for satellite links that will put them on par with NASK.
Looming over everything is Telekomunikacja Polska SA (TPSA), with its phone monopoly, hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly profits, and a plan to start offering Internet protocol next month.
The players are watching each other for clues. TPSA won't announce prices until NASK announces its own revised price scheme. NASK, meanwhile, is in contortions looking for ways to coexist with another, more powerful, state-owned Internet provider. Private Internet firms are battening down the hatches and hoping that they can attract customers with serious customer service.