Understanding The Internet As An Infrastructure

The internet is an information delivery and communications platform. It is one of six (including itself) in our world. It’s unique in that it combines both information delivery and communications into a single, seamless environment. No other platform has ever done this dual functionality except radio, which does so in a very crude, minimal way.

Most people see the internet as the ‘web,’ which is the software that sits on top of the platform infrastructure described above. All websites, social networks, apps, etc. are essentially this. While this software plays an important role with the internet, it can not exist on the internet without the platform’s infrastructure and therefore is the lesser relevant component of the internet’s existence.

The internet’s infrastructure is owned by telecom carriers, with exception to Google (which now owns internet infrastructure as well). The carriers invested the money and time into building the internet’s infrastructure because it offered larger margins, lower costs and broader reach. Given that the carriers own the inetrnet, the idea that the internet will circumvent or disrupt telecom is not quite a true reality. Of course the carriers knew the internet would disrupt their legacy platform business going in.

Currently the internet is also seen predominantly as an information distribution platform, but it has robust communications functionality that will replace the landline and cellular platforms in the future. This is why in part the internet was designed and why it is here.

While today it is perceived that the internet integrated into a larger part of our world and experiences is so that we can use social networks, it’s in reality nothing of the sort. The infrastructure can and will provide access and security, utility management, and a variety of other functionalities and means.

A great way to understand this is to think about how and where you use radio, or make a phone call, watch TV, etc. — now instead of thinking the experience is what will change in the future, or the access device, envision the actual delivery platform being what is different, and you’ll have a full understanding of what the internet is and why it is here.

Because the internet is ‘device agnostic’ it can and will go into everything, but it won’t always be for the same reasons or uses. That’s important to understand about the future too.

Not only can we expect the use of the internet to change in the coming years, but also the type of software (websites, apps, etc.) that is used, as well as the role the carriers and cable companies will play. It’s likely that there will be increased global competition including here in the U.S. as many foreign carriers own internet infrastructure here. But this is likely far away from today.

While the U.S. invented the internet infrastucture, we are significantly behind many other countries in using it as it is designed and can do (including many countries considered ‘third world’ here). The infrastructure here has been able to do things like have the iPhone and connected devices since before 2005, it’s been able to provide both mobile and fixed voice communications since the same, and after 2005 it was capable of delivering its full functionality to replace the other five platforms in our world.

This is likely because of a tight eye on the software side versus recognizing the platform and what it is. But, the infrastructure has proliferated to a place where this won’t be for long. In the end, in information delivery and communications platform business, the platform always ultimately controls the outcome, and always wins.