What does an internet servuce provider do (ie technically speaking)?
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As some users said already, the Internet is like a road system.
Perhaps more literally than you think, even–the grand majority of connections between computers are through unbroken chains of physical cables. Say you have a desktop PC plugged into the wall to get Internet service, and you’re playing some game with your friend on the other side of the planet who does the same. If you picked up the cable you plugged into your PC and followed it like a guide rope, you will almost certainly get to your friend’s house without ever letting go of a physical cable. You may have to dig up some cable from underground and go under an ocean or two, but the cables are really there, somewhere.
The thing is, though, that in most countries, the “road network” that makes up the Internet is entirely made of toll roads. All of those cables are owned by private companies who have to build and fix them, and you pay to use them.
Just like roads, the cables come in many sizes. Big cables that link huge cities together are like massive, multi-lane highways. Medium-sized cables are like freeways that make up the backbones within cities. And finally, there’s the small cables that are like quiet streets that serve small neighborhoods.
Usually, the people who own the biggest cables don’t want to deal with the smaller cables. It’s just too complicated to bother with millions of individual customers and getting them all hooked up. So they let other companies step up and take a crack at just that part. Those are the ISPs you know. They negotiate with the big-cable companies to use the big roads on your behalf, so you don’t have to pay a separate toll fee for every single network your data goes through to get to its destination. You just pay the company that digs the final cable leading to your house.
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