Who Owns The Internet?
While I was watching TV, my brother came over and asked me a question “Who owns internet ?”
Before answering to his question, I asked him, “Do You know, What is the Internet?” and he said
If you are clueless as well, read this, I am going to explain everything.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a huge global network that connects computers all over the world. People can share information and have access to data resources through a vast collection of private, public, business, academic and government networks via the Internet from any location with an Internet connection. When someone refers to a computer as being online, they are simply referring to the fact that it is linked to the Internet. When you use data on your mobile device, check your email, or play a video game with players around the globe in real time, you are sending and receiving information via the Internet. Your device becomes a part of the network. You must have heard about World Wide Web. Although they are sometimes used interchangeably, the internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing.
Internet VS World Wide Web
Internet is a means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in the world, Where as World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages or information stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet. Internet is infrastructure and WWW is service on top of that infrastructure. when you send an email or chatting with someone online, you are using the internet. But, when you have opened a website like google.com for information, you are using the World Wide Web, a network of servers over the internet. You request a webpage from your computer using a browser, and the server renders that page to your browser. Your computer is called a client who runs a program (web browser), and asks the other computer (server) for the information it needs.
Who Owns The Internet?
The answer of this question is No one and everyone. I asked my brother, “Did you understand?” and he was like
Okay, Let me explain . If you think that internet providers like Jio, Airtel etc. control the internet then you are wrong. What about government ? Again, wrong answer. If you think of the Internet as a unified, single entity, then no one owns it. From a different angle, the Internet is owned by countless individuals and groups. There are many different pieces of information on the Internet, each of which has an owner. Some of these owners can control the quality and level of access you have to the Internet. Although they may not be the sole owners of the system, but they can still impact your Internet experience.
I just told that the Internet is a huge global network that connects computers all over the world, but how? There are several large corporations provide the routers and cable that make it up this huge network. Some of these corporations include UUNET, Level 3, Verizon, AT&T etc. These are companies responsible for connecting the servers to different nations using ‘Submarine Cables’ or Optical fibres as you know it. These companies have connected all the countries using these cables and have laid it on the seabed. They have invested in laying these cables. These cables have speed of approx. 100Gbps. So, internet to these companies are free of cost as these are connected directly to the servers, the only cost they bear is for the maintenance of these cables.
Smaller ISPs exist as well that ensure the internet gets to your house. These businesses negotiate for internet access with the large companies mentioned above and these large companies charge them according to per GB cost. They do not form the internet’s backbone but they can control your speed of internet, or even what you can access. Some of companies are JIO, VODAFONE, IDEA, AIRTEL and many more.
Then you have something equally as important called “Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.”
To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer — a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer — a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet.
There are of course lots of another important things involved in the running of internet. we have internet societies which creates standards and policies. In this sense we all own a bit of internet. we are the internet.
Happy learning!!
