To see how big carriers could control the online world, you must understand its structures.
Earthlink gives Jennifer access to the Internet, much in the way than an
onramp puts a driver on the national highway system. Earthlink is a local Internet
service provider, and it will send the (1) ______ to an Internet "(2) ______ [1] ______
provider",to route it along its way. [2] ______
These Internet players typically own and lease long-haul fiber-optic cables
spanning a large region. They also own the communications gear that directs (3)
______ over the Internet. They connect to each other to exchange data between [3] ______
their customers, like the highway system over which most of the freight of the
Internet travels to reach its (4) ______
Now, instead of the National Science Foundation, there are many of them [4] ______
that-link together to provide the global (5) ______,that is the Internet.
The problem was, as the Internet grew, the public points became overbnr- [5] ______
dened and traffic showed at these bottlenecks. So they started making arrangements
with each other. And they aren’t changing peers now, but there is a lot of’
discussion about whether they should. And the industry has not figured out how
to (6) ______ who owes what to whom if fees should be changed.
Since the Internet was (7) ______,it has grown by leaps and bounds into a [6] ______
remarkably successful commmunications medium without government (8) ______ [7] ______
--and most want to stay that way. But the Internet has matured to a [8] ______
point that more uniform rules are needed to (9) ______ competition.
Those who can afford to pay the price can become peers. Peering would be [9] ______
determined by the (10) ______ rather than by a private company with its own
competitive interests. [10] ______