nk into "computer gateways" around the world, and from those gateways gain access to thousands of data bases around the world.
The fledgling ISPs established a business system that is still in existence today, although greatly enhanced. Simply speaking, that business consists of "buying" or "leasing" time and bandwidth from telephone systems known as "backbone" suppliers (AT&T, Sprint, MCI and a handful of others) (Lange,1995, 103).
Once an agreement on a block of time or a quantity of bandwidth has been contracted for, the ISP then resells that time or bandwidth to companies that own a domain name (URL) and wish to have a location for their store. The company places its domain on an ISP, and begins paying "rent." In this case, the ISP is similar, philosophically, to a landlord. Best estimates place the size of the ISP industry at right around $3 billion a year and growing ("Global Internet 100, 1998, Online).
The number of Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United States grew from under 1,500 in March, 1996, to more than 12,000 in 1998, according to Boardwatch Magazine's Internet Service Providers directory. Although it's difficult to estimate annual sales for the industry, Boardwatch Technical Director Gary Funk said in 1996, "They employ lots of people, they buy lots of hardware (much of it from local companies), and they're making the phone companies rich" (Griffin, 1996, 32).
In terms of numbers, the 11 largest ISPs are: AT&T WorldNet Service; Bell Atlantic Internet Solutions; Best Internet Communications Inc., Concentric Network Corp.; EarthLink Network Inc.; GTE; IBM Global Services; Metricom; Pacific Bell Internet Services; PSINet Inc.; and Southwestern Bell Internet Services Inc.
Together, these companies currently provide direct Internet access to more than 2.5 million subscribers, most of them businesses. However, since there are more than 70 million Internet users in the Un...