Commercialization of the Internet

Abstract

This history of the Internet is outlined. The greatest success of the Internet story is centered on the controversy regarding its privatization and commercialization. That success is the leveraging of government, academic, and industry support into a partnership dedicated to strengthening the national networking infrastructure. The formation of several companies in 1989/90 opened a new era for the Internet: the era of privatized and commercialized Internet services. Since no routing technology exists to color traffic as being either commercial or research/education, there is no consensus within the Internet community as how to define what is and is not commercial traffic. However, the commercial Internet is evolving rapidly. Already there are at least 25 networks that carry commercial traffic. At speeds up to 1.5 Mb/s, connectivity to the Internet in the US is becoming a commodity. Outside the United States, the openness of the playing field varied based on the state of national telecommunication policies and privatization. The future of the Internet is discussed.<>