Tiers from 1 to 3 in order of how much reach they have and how much cost they must pay for accessing the whole internet

  1. huge ISPs that you know of like AT&T
  2. medium-size, that must pay to reach everywhere but have pretty wide reach on their own
  3. very local, small little networks

you can make a tier3 effectively operate like an overlay network??

  • #research/questions if there was a communally-owned ISP, what could you do / experiment with for how “the internet works” that isn’t possible when you are dependent on internet access via huge, tier 1 ISPs?