Internet in a few hands

Two global Internet providers announced their merger a few days ago for three billion dollars. 70 percent of the world's data traffic would be in the hands of a single company.

Global high-speed data traffic is in fewer and fewer hands. Has the reader ever thought about where the data one searches on the web travels? How do you physically get to the servers of Facebook, Twitter, Google or Wikipedia? How? It is done through the providers of the highest layer of the Internet: the so-called layer 1 (tier 1). A few days ago, Level 3 acquired Global Crossing, for about three billion dollars. Both corporations traffic data at this layer 1: they are the heart of the Internet. Surely the reader does not know any of these companies, but it is likely that you are using them at the time. Well, this merger serves to analyze how the highest layer of the Internet works and how the appearance of the network will change from now on: a single company will have its own structure in 50 countries, will reach 70 countries and will concentrate 70 percent of the world's traffic between now and 2013.

As things are on the Internet, each person who wants to connect needs a computer and a provider: in the case of Argentina, you can choose between Arnet, Speedy, Fibertel, and we are already in the run-up to Argentina Conectada, the government project. But where does a local Internet provider connect to, for example, the United States or Asia? No matter how large the local company is, it needs transoceanic fiber optics to reach global content. As is known, the companies that offer global connection would be AOL, AT&T, British Telecom, Verizon Business, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Communications, Qwest, Cogent, SprintLink, TIWS and, finally, Global Crossing, now within the structure of Level 3. These large global Internet access providers do not charge each other: they have more to offer than to ask for. But they do charge local providers for the data they require. In other words, a single company will handle 70 percent of Internet traffic and will charge the rest of the providers for the use of its infrastructure (in which, of course, it invested billions of dollars).

According to Alejandro Girardotti, manager of data marketing products at the recently sold Global Crossing belonging to Singapore Technologies Telemedia, which operates in Argentina: “The Internet is a fairly complex connection of multiple computers. The larger providers sell local providers high-speed access to interesting content. " Due to the nature of the Internet, global carriers (layer 12) are connected to each other. “The residential customer sends his order to the local supplier. The local provider looks for connections through global providers and returns the information to the residential customer, looking for the shortest route. " In the case of Egypt, for example, when the country was left without Internet during the first days of the revolt that ended the Hosni Mubarak government, that government decided to "cut off" Internet access, putting pressure on local providers to They will disconnect from the trunk networks, to prevent access to Facebook and Twitter. But global providers continued to operate.

This week, the Government presented the National Plan for Telecommunications Argentina Conectada, which will allow access to high-speed Internet at the national level with a global investment of eight billion dollars. The state installation of this so-called backbone network from Arsat allows the State not to depend on other private companies to give Internet access to its citizens, in addition to using the structure to send the data of digital television signals. However, finally, to access the rest of the global content offered by the Internet, Argentina (like any other country in the world) will have to connect to one or more providers of the highest level in layer 1.

When the riots began in Tunisia, a country with high digital penetration but with tight state control until then, it was known that the government made all local providers pass through a central office and from there controlled them before going online international. The point is that there are points of union at the national level sometimes imposed by governments. Whoever controls these physical points, whether they are global providers or local governments, can “regulate traffic, manage speeds, eliminate traffic to a part of the network or to a special page, which can be done by private companies or technicians of the trained government, ”says Girardotti. So, to leave a country out of the Internet, it is easier to put pressure on local providers than on global ones. Girardotti explains that a country can "deny the answer" to traffic from a certain country or region, but cannot "cancel" the connection from another country.

As in almost all areas of consumption, the United States is the largest consumer of data in the world. And, as Internet traffic maps show, the most congested route is between London and New York, both ports that connect the West to the East. "Asia is the area that is growing the most, due to the phenomenon of social inclusion in those countries", says Girardotti. Now, ask yourself: which is the company that handles the most connections between New York and London? Level 3. What is the company with the biggest connections in Asia? Global Crossing. "There is no way to be independent," says Girardotti.

Source: page 12