The Internet: what will grow up to be?

Summary form only given, as follows. The Internet is almost 20 years old today (dating from the wide deployment of TCP/IP on the ARPANET in 1983). It is undoubtedly a success, but unarguably still a work in progress. The author makes the case that the Internet is only 0.1% built out today, and could take another 20 years to fully mature. The Internet is at a crossroads today. It will likely continue as the dominant form of computer networking, but whether or not it becomes the dominant network of the future is questionable. Even though the Internet may have more capacity than the telephone network today, it is incapable of carrying toll-quality telephony. The issues and challenges the Internet faces if it is ever to replace the PSTN are discussed.