How does the Internet Work?
(And How is that Linked to Competition?)

Pranesh Prakash

Fellow
Centre for Internet and Society

Affiliated Fellow
Information Society Project, Yale Law School

Public Interest Technology Fellow

New America

 

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Is the Internet Competitive?

Internet vs. Internets

Cooperative benefits vs. Competitive benefits

Centralized or Decentralized?

Both
Domain Names (Centralized)
ISPs (Decentralized)
Standards (Centralized)

Internet Standards

Royalty-Free

(Avoid Patents!)
Openly Developed
Consensus, not Regulation

But there's much that isn't "Internet"
(Web Services, Browsers, Media Codecs, OSes, etc.)

End-to-End Principle

Competition in Internet Infrastructure

Devices
(Smartphones + Patents)
(Proprietary/Non-Standard Interfaces)
(Power Cables!)

Competition in Internet Infrastructure

Eyeball ISPs

(Net Neutrality / Anti-discrimination)

Competition in Internet Infrastructure

Networks / Telecoms
(Spectrum Allocation)

(Right of Way)
(Local Loop Unbundling / Open Access)

Competition in Internet Infrastructure

ICANN

(As a tax collector)
(As a regulator)
(Domain names)
(TLDs)

Web

Browsers
Operating Systems

Internet Infrastructure and Competition

By Pranesh Prakash

Internet Infrastructure and Competition

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