The internet is over!

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

But how do the ISPs hook up? Don't they have to go through a wire-owner at some point?

Here is a list of backbone providers. Short version:

360networks
AboveNet
Ameritech
AT&T
Btnaccess
Bell Canada
BellSouth
Broadwing
Cogent
Electric Lightwave
Fiber Network Solutions
Genuity
GlobalNAPs
Globix
GT (Canada)
IDT Corporation
Level 3
Multacom
Mzima
Netifice
Oxford Networks
PPL Telcom
Quest (Asia)
Qwest Comm.
SAVVIS
Sprint Wholesale
Telcove
Teleglobe (VSNL)
TeliaSonera
Telstra Inc. (Asia, USA)
Time Warner Telecom
Verio (NTT)
WilTel (Williams Comm.)
XO Comm.
Xspedius

A smart ISP would get a circuit to one of these people. But they might just as well get IP service from someone who got a circuit from these people. Or they could get service from someone who got service from these people. Or they could get multiple services and implement some sort of routing redundancy.

And now the hundreds of leaf nodes become thousands and millions, and the latency penalty of additional routers is still plenty low for voice.

Notice which two names are not on the list.