How the Internet works

[nihil]

Perhaps it might be useful to look at how things work in the UK, for private users at least?

The first thing you do is connect your modem to your telephone line. This is "owned" by your Telco, or is rented from the infrastructure owner by your Telco. This is the same for 56.6 dial up and for ADSL, even though they use different resources.

You connect to your ISP via this telephone line, and from them to the internet.

So, you use the Telcos resources and the ISP's. Both expect to be paid for this in some way or another.

OK the normal practice in the UK these days is to rent a package that covers both your telephone and your broadband.

Back in the days of 56.6 dial-up there were a variety of packages.

1. "Free" ISP................ here you don't pay for the internet but you pay for the telephone connection. The Telco then shares the revenue from the call charges with the ISP.

2. Fixed monthly fee..............here you pay the ISP a fixed charge, and they give you a "freephone" number to call them. They share part of the revenue with the telco.

3. Pay as you go.....................like #2 but the charges are based on usage.

The thing to remember that local telephone calls are not generally free in the UK, unless you have one of the packages, in which case you would almost certainly have broadband.

Sure you could (theoretically) register a domain and set up your own gear, as outlined by RoadClosed, but in reality that is restricted to large corporations, institutions and the like.

OK, you can use cable, satellite and wireless to connect, but the business model is pretty much the same