DID YOU KNOW?

In 1989, the first ISPs were established in Australia and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts, The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer was served in November 1989.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

An internet service provider or ISP is a company or organisation that provides you with the services required for you to connect to the internet. There are various levels of ISP's in that they have extensive reseller programs allowing smaller companies to resell and make a small markup on their services. These levels are known as Tiers, such as a Tier 1 would be the company that owns equipment and the sub-sea cables that brings the internet line into the Country. Tier 1 ISP's do not deal directly with the public or with any company which does not have an ECNS License through the regulatory body ICASA. Tier 2 ISP, which also require an ECNS or ECS License, is the top tier from which a reseller can purchase the service from as resellers are not required to have a license and in fact qualify for a full exeption as long as the Tier 2 for whom they are reselling is licensed. Most of the private sector, homes and SMME's, deal with resellers for two reasons. Firstly, resellers provide a fuller service in that you are able to make contact with them more efficiently. Generally Tier 1 and 2 prefer not to communicate with end users and therefore have a large reseller network setup under them.

There are a few other classifications of ISP's which we generally don't refer to like:

• Access providers ISP's
• Mailbox providers
• Hosting ISP's
• Transit ISP's
• Virtual ISP's
• Wireless ISP's

The reason we don't refer to these is due to the fact that most, if not all, ISP's (Tier 3) in South Africa provide a fully comprehensive service which includes all of these. The company that provides your internet most likely provide you with an email service and hosting if you request it. The others are mostly swallowed up by the simple category of ISP's and there is no need to go into the extensive explaination of these.