The Numbers

103.7 billion

The number of bills estimated to have been received by consumers worldwide in 2001. (TOWERGROUP)

50 million

The number of consumer bills estimated to have been presented and paid via electronic roundtrip transactions in 2001. (TOWERGROUP)

$19.9 billion

The amount of money borrowed by U.S. consumers in November, the most since the Federal Reserve began tracking the figure in 1943. (FEDERAL RESERVE, REPORTED IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

3,411

The number of patents awarded to IBM Corp. in 2001, the first time a company was awarded more than 3,000 patents in a single year. (THE NEW YORK TIMES)

10

The number of concert halls in Japan that are now using machines that generate jamming waves to temporarily render mobile phones inoperative during performances. (RESEARCH PROGRAM ON THE JAPANESE WIRELESS INTERNET, TOKYO)

11

The number of terabytes of content served during the Webcast of Steve Jobs' two-hour keynote address at the MacWorld convention in January. (AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES INC.)