100 Billion Planets in the Milky Way

A six year study reveals that there could be at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy alone as reported in an article in physics.org.

It has been previously speculated by most scientists that about 20 percent only of the stars in the Milky Way would hold at least one planet around them. But this six year analysis using microlensing concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception.

So now that we are guessing better on how many planets we have in the galaxy, perhaps we can revisit good old Drake equation to estimate how many intelligent aliens out there can we have contact.

N is equal to  R * Fp * Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L . So here is my own conservative calculation. 

R - Rate of formation of suitable stars in our galaxy	R =
Fp - Fraction (%) of those stars with planets	Fp =	%
Ne -Number of "earths" per planetary system	Ne =
Fl - Fraction (%) of those planets where life develops	Fl =	%
Fi - Fraction (%) of sites with intelligent life	Fi =	%
Fc - Fraction (%) of planets where technology develops	Fc =	%
L - "Lifetime" of communicating civilizations (years)	L =
R * Fp * Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L = N
N - Number of communicative civilizations	N =

6000 planets with civilizations we can contact in this lifetime. 

I guess that gives lots of options and more chances to find one.

Here, try your own calculations - DRAKE CALCULATOR