AnInternet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in theInternet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial,community-owned,non-profit, or otherwiseprivately owned.
The Internet (originallyARPAnet) was developed as a network between government research laboratories and participating departments of universities. Other companies and organizations joined by direct connection to thebackbone, or by arrangements through other connected companies, sometimes using dialup tools such asUUCP. By the late 1980s, a process was set in place towards public, commercial use of the Internet. Some restrictions were removed by 1991,[1] shortly after the introduction of theWorld Wide Web.[2]
During the 1980s,online service providers such asCompuServe,Prodigy, andAmerica Online (AOL) began to offer limited capabilities to access the Internet, such as e-mail interchange, but full access to the Internet was not readily available to the general public.
In 1989, the first Internet service providers, companies offering the public direct access to the Internet for a monthly fee, were established in Australia[3] and the United States. InBrookline, Massachusetts,The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer was served in November 1989.[4] These companies generally offereddial-up connections, using the public telephone network to provide last-mile connections to their customers. Thebarriers to entry for dial-up ISPs were low and many providers emerged.
However, cable television companies and the telephone carriers already had wired connections to their customers and could offer Internet connections at much higher speeds than dial-up usingbroadband technology such ascable modems anddigital subscriber line (DSL). As a result, these companies often became the dominant ISPs in their service areas, and what was once a highly competitive ISP market became effectively a monopoly orduopoly in countries with a commercialtelecommunications market, such as the United States.
In 1995,NSFNET was decommissioned removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic andnetwork access points were created to allow peering arrangements between commercial ISPs.
On 23 April 2014, the U.S.Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was reported to be considering a new rule permitting ISPs to offer content providers a faster track to send content, thus reversing their earliernet neutrality position.[5][6][7] A possible solution to net neutrality concerns may bemunicipal broadband, according toProfessor Susan Crawford, a legal and technology expert atHarvard Law School.[8] On 15 May 2014, the FCC decided to consider two options regarding Internet services: first, permit fast and slow broadband lanes, thereby compromising net neutrality; and second, reclassify broadband as atelecommunications service, thereby preserving net neutrality.[9][10] On 10 November 2014, PresidentBarack Obama recommended that the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to preserve net neutrality.[11][12][13] On 16 January 2015,Republicans presented legislation, in the form of aU.S. CongressH.R.discussion draft bill, that makes concessions to net neutrality but prohibits the FCC from accomplishing the goal or enacting any further regulation affecting Internet service providers.[14][15] On 31 January 2015,AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying ("with some caveats")Title II (common carrier) of theCommunications Act of 1934 to the Internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015.[16][17][18][19][20] Adoption of this notion would reclassify Internet service from one of information to one of the telecommunications[21] and, according toTom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, ensure net neutrality.[22][23] The FCC was expected to enforce net neutrality in its vote, according toThe New York Times.[24][25]
Upon becoming FCC chairman in April 2017,Ajit Pai proposed an end to net neutrality, awaiting votes from the commission.[36][37] On 21 November 2017, Pai announced that a vote will be held by FCC members on 14 December 2017 on whether to repeal the policy.[38] On 11 June 2018, the repeal of the FCC's network neutrality rules took effect.[39][40]
Since December 31, 2021, TheAffordable Connectivity Program has given households in the U.S. at or below 200% of theFederal Poverty Guidelines or households which meet a number of other criteria an up to $30 per month discount toward internet service, or up to $75 per month on certain tribal lands.[41]
Access provider ISPs provide Internet access, employing a range of technologies to connect users to their network.[42] Available technologies have ranged from computer modems withacoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable (CATV),Wi-Fi, and fiber optics.
Amailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It providesemail servers to send, receive, accept, and store email forend users or other organizations.
Just as their customers pay them for Internet access, ISPs themselves pay upstream ISPs for Internet access. An upstream ISP such as a tier 2 or tier 1 ISP usually has a larger network than the contracting ISP or is able to provide the contracting ISP with access to parts of the Internet the contracting ISP by itself has no access to.[60]
In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP and is used to transmit data to or from areas of the Internet beyond the home network; this mode of interconnection is often cascaded multiple times until reaching atier 1 carrier. In reality, the situation is often more complex. ISPs with more than onepoint of presence (PoP)[61][62] may have separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of multiple upstream ISPs and may have connections to each one of them at one or more point of presence.[60] Transit ISPs provide large amounts ofbandwidth for connecting hosting ISPs and access ISPs.[63]
Border Gateway Protocol is used by routers to connect to other networks, which are identified by theirautonomous system number.[64]Tier 2 ISPs depend on Tier 1 ISPs and often have their own networks, but must pay for transit or internet access to Tier 1 ISPs, but may peer or send transit without paying, to other Tier 2 and/or some Tier 1 ISPs. Tier 3 ISPs do not engage in peering and only purchase transit from Tier 2 and Tier 1 ISPs, and often specialize in offering internet service to end customers such as businesses and individuals. Some organizations act as their own ISPs and purchase transit directly from a Tier 1 ISP.[65] Transit ISPs may use OTN (Optical transport network) or SDH/SONET (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/Synchronous Optical Networking)[50] with DWDM (Dense wavelength-division multiplexing) for transmitting data through optical fiber over long distances such as across a city or between cities.[66][67][68] For transmissions in a metro area such as a city[69] and for large customers such as data centers,[70] special pluggable modules in routers, conforming to standards such asCFP,[71][72] QSFP-DD, OSFP,[73] 400ZR or OpenZR+ may be used alongside DWDM[74] and many vendors have proprietary offerings.[75][76][77] Long-haul networks transport data across longer distances than metro networks, such as throughsubmarine cables,[50][78] or connecting several metropolitan networks.[79] Optical line systems and packet optical transport systems[80] can also be used for data transmission in metro areas, long haul connections and data center interconnect.[81][82] Ultra long haul transmission transports data over distances of over 1500 kilometers.[83]
Avirtual ISP (VISP) is an operation that purchases services from another ISP, sometimes called awholesale ISP in this context,[84] which allow the VISP's customers to access the Internet using services and infrastructure owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. VISPs resemblemobile virtual network operators andcompetitive local exchange carriers for voice communications.
Free ISPs are Internet service providers that provide service free of charge. Many free ISPs display advertisements while the user is connected; like commercialtelevision, in a sense they are selling the user's attention to the advertiser. Other free ISPs, sometimes calledfreenets, are run on a nonprofit basis, usually with volunteer staff.[85]
Awireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8 GHz bands or licensed frequencies such as 2.5 GHz (EBS/BRS), 3.65 GHz (NN) and in the UHF band (including theMMDS frequency band) andLMDS.[86]
It is hypothesized that the vast divide between broadband connection in rural and urban areas is partially caused by a lack of competition betweenISPs in rural areas, where there exists a market typically controlled by just one provider.[87] A lack of competition problematically causes subscription rates to rise disproportionately with the quality of service in rural areas, causing broadband connection to be unaffordable for some, even when the infrastructure supports service in a given area.
In contrast, consumers in urban areas typically benefit from lower rates and higher quality of broadband services, not only due to more advanced infrastructure but also the healthy economic competition caused by having several ISPs in a given area.[88] How the difference in competition levels has potentially negatively affected the innovation and development of infrastructure in specific rural areas remains a question. The exploration and answers developed to the question could provide guidance for possible interventions and solutions meant to remedy the digital divide between rural and urban connectivity.
Altnets (portmanteau of "alternative network provider") are localized broadband networks, typically formed as an alternative to monopolistic internet service providers within a region.[89]
ISPs may engage inpeering, where multiple ISPs interconnect atpeering points orInternet exchange points (IXPs), allowing routing of data between each network, without charging one another for the data transmitted—data that would otherwise have passed through a third upstream ISP, incurring charges from the upstream ISP.[60]
ISPs requiring no upstream and having only customers (end customers or peer ISPs) are calledTier 1 ISPs.
Network hardware, software and specifications, as well as the expertise of network management personnel are important in ensuring that data follows the most efficient route, and upstream connections work reliably. A tradeoff between cost and efficiency is possible.[85]
Tier 1 ISPs are also interconnected with a mesh network topology.[90][91] Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are public locations where several networks are connected to each other.[92][93] Public peering is done at IXPs, while private peering can be done with direct links between networks.[94][65] IXPs or peering exchanges may be located in data centers.[95][96][97]
Internet service providers in many countries are legally required (e.g., viaCommunications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the U.S.) to allowlaw enforcement agencies to monitor some or all of the information transmitted by the ISP, or even store the browsing history of users to allow government access if needed (e.g. via theInvestigatory Powers Act 2016 in theUnited Kingdom). Furthermore, in some countries ISPs are subject to monitoring by intelligence agencies. In the U.S., a controversialNational Security Agency program known asPRISM provides for broad monitoring of Internet users traffic and has raised concerns about potential violation of the privacy protections in theFourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[98][99] Modern ISPs integrate a wide array ofsurveillance andpacket sniffing equipment into their networks, which then feeds the data to law-enforcement/intelligence networks (such asDCSNet in the United States, orSORM[100] in Russia) allowing monitoring of Internet traffic in real time.
^Outreach: The InternetArchived 2014-01-18 at theWayback Machine, U.S. National Science Foundation, "In March 1991, the NSFNET acceptable use policy was altered to allow commercial traffic."
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