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Who Pays for It

The old rule for when things are confusing is "follow the money." Well, this won't help you to understand the Internet. No one pays for "it"; there is no Internet, Inc. that collects fees from all Internet networks or users. Instead, everyone pays for their part.  The NSF pays for NSFNET. NASA pays for the NASA Science Internet.  Networks get together and decide how to connect themselves together and fund these interconnections. A college or corporation pays for their connection to some regional network, which in turn pays a national provider for its access.

 The Internet has not yet become a "necessity" in many people's minds. When it does, expect privatization to come quickly.  Although most people in the networking community think that privatization is a good idea, there are some obstacles in the way. Most revolve around the funding for the connections that are already in place. Many schools are connected because the government pays part of the bill. If they had to pay their own way, some schools would probably decide to spend their money elsewhere. Major research institutions would certainly stay on the net; but some smaller colleges might not, and the costs would probably be prohibitive for most secondary schools (let alone grade schools).  What if the school could afford either an Internet connection or a science lab? It's unclear which one would get funded.

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Last modified: December 15, 2000