(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's pretty simple. Last winter I found myself asking, What was the biggest business story of the past five years? Obvious answer: the rise of the Internet. To our credit, in the mid-1990s FORTUNE wrote early and often about the Net's world-changing potential. But we never stopped and shouted in a loud, issue-length voice, Listen up! I then asked the logical follow-up question--What will be the biggest story over the next five years? Same answer: the rise of the Internet.

Only this time we're shouting. That's because we believe the multiplication not just of Internet connections but also of faster links--always on and capable of transmitting voice, data, and images anywhere--guarantees that the upheavals ahead will make those of the past decade pale by comparison. That's going to prove true whether you measure change by market caps gained (or lost), by numbers of eyeballs captured, or by the sweep of the social and business transformations that new applications will spark.

Beyond that large prediction, we aren't wasting your time with lots of in-five-years-things-are-going-to-turn-out-exactly-this-way-and-if-not-you-won't-remember-it forecasts--the kind of thing that companies waste big money paying consultants for. Nor have we drunk the Kool-Aid: We're explicit about how unreliable and overhyped this technology can be right now.

Instead, our bet was that the most interesting way to capture the Net's amazing future--and put it in perspective--would be to focus this special issue on telling here-and-now stories about pioneers trying to make that future a reality. Some are famous, like the two young movie stars on the left, whose fascinating bid to create entertainment's next wave was uncovered by Andy Serwer. Others are not, such as the everymen and women portrayed in Dan Roth's vivid tale of a startup, "One Life to Live." They all make for compelling reading, as do the provocative musings gathered by our tech writers in "14 Minds Look (Way) Out" or the product advice offered by our new personal technology columnist, Peter Lewis.

A project like this is a huge undertaking. It forced many people to wear two hats--one for our regular magazine and one for what we dubbed the "broadband issue." To all the editors, photo editors, designers, and copy, imaging, and production folks who toiled long hours on this project--and who unlike writers and columnists don't get bylines--thanks. (And a Broadband Purple Heart to Serwer for writing not one but two chunky stories.)

But above all, I want to thank the four people shown here. Photo editor Courtenay Clinton and picture researcher Meaghan Looram coordinated most of the stunning photography you're about to see. Designer Blake Taylor pulled this subject matter down out of the ether and gave a fresh and beautiful face to our pages. Issue editor Will Bourne kept the whole enterprise from running off the rails. He directed the visuals, edited a ton of copy, and conceived the marvelous device of the "frames"--22 arresting glimpses of where the Net is going, researched and written by freelance writer Clive Thompson. (They're scattered throughout the features.)

It was hard work, but a blast. We hope you have as much fun reading this issue as we did creating it.