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The expansion of connectivity on a national scale in Brazil, whether through mobile Internet or fixed broadband, is described as one of the factors that can lead to social and economic benefits for large parts of the population who do not have a network connection. It can also help to reduce poverty by improving the infrastructure of services and increasing Internet use for education purposes. It also provides people with the ability to communicate with online administrative services – local, regional, and national. In Brazil, the main difficulty facing an effective universalization of telecommunications has been limitations in accessing services. This chapter demonstrates the relevance of small Internet providers for the expansion of fixed broadband in less commercially attractive regions (in terms of subscribers, income, and distance) who have been growing over recent years and are now present in 70% of Brazilian municipalities and whose role is paramount to reducing the digital divide.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

The future development of the internet is not only heavily dependent on its technological evolution, but also on business sustainability for the interconnection ecosystem the web relies on, where various players characterized by fairly different economic structures and interests are coexisting. Therefore, in this paper the authors aim to propose a methodological framework for developing innovative interconnection business models.

Starting from a comprehensive as‐is analysis including the selection of appropriate service scenarios, market activities are abstracted through an archetypization process. Based on that, a value network for the future marketplace is proposed and makes it possible to design a business model for carriers, before, as last step, both the value network configurations and the to‐be business model are evaluated.

The framework to assess the future internet ecosystem depicts the interconnections value network, shedding light on its key activities; it proposes the establishment of a new dynamic interconnection marketplace based on an emerging interconnection value network where traditional and original roles coexist; and it evaluates the introduction of sending party pays and bid‐and‐ask solutions for governing the marketplace and its business models.

The authors' approach addresses carriers, over‐the‐top providers and technology providers as well as end user groups, specifically aiming at fostering the evolution of the future internet by means of developing innovative value configurations and business model options with a substantial impact for a broad set of stakeholders on a global scale. Thus, the canvas of guidelines presented and discussed in this paper covers all stakeholders in the interconnection ecosystem and provides a solid starting point for upcoming implementations.

Libraries are increasingly active on the Internet. Internet access allows libraries to retrieve and disseminate information electronically (often at no cost), communicate with other libraries and librarians through discussion groups, access images of unique materials, as well as offer Internet access to their communities. This article briefly describes some of these services, offers specific guidelines for choosing an Internet service provider, summarizes services provided by several firms, and recommends sources for further information.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze standard setting and how a critical mass of users emerged in an industry in which multiple interface standards co‐exist and a critical mass of users was created multiple times.

This paper is based on research conducted for almost ten years using the case study approach. Data were gathered through more than 100 interviews with Japanese firms and through analyses of published sources.

The paper finds that growth in mobile internet services required agreements on multiple interface standards where some of these interface standards exhibited interdependencies and thus required integral design, while others have been built on top of these “basic” interface standards. Agreements on the former interface standards enable basic data connections between phones, services, and content and this required integral design. The latter interface standards connect the mobile phone with content and applications from other industries (e.g. music, video, publishing, broadcasting, and payment) and each critical mass of phones, services, and content for them partly builds from previously created critical masses.

The research focused on a single industry in a single country.

This paper helps scholars and practitioners better understand how interface standards and critical masses for them emerge.

This is the first paper to analyze multiple interface standards in a single industry and the emergence of a critical mass of users or complementary products for these standards.

The purpose of this paper is to chart the evolving internet‐mobile internet relationship in Japan.

The approach takes the form of a case study.

The original i‐Mode‐based model for mobile internet in Japan was largely an ordered system except for relatively marginal unofficial web sites, which unlike official web sites were not listed on the browser, where an element of chaos reigned. The introduction of Google search engine changed the ecosystem by giving the unofficial web sites new visibility.

The interface between the internet and its wireless extensions is a potential source of powerful influences both ways and needs to be watched.

The paper looks at the little studied interface between the chaotic internet and its mobile extensions, largely ordered systems, to see whether the chaos of the internet will spill over to its mobile extensions or whether the order of the latter will march on to the former.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to identify the dimensions for evaluating the service quality of internet service providers (ISPs); second, to investigate the relationship between service quality and customers’ behavioural intentions; and third, to investigate the influence of ISP customers’ usage patterns on their perceptions of ISP’s service quality dimensions.

The study employs a sequential exploratory mixed method design incorporating quantitative and qualitative elements. Data in Study 1 was obtained from 2,059 internet users using an online survey. The relationships between the constructs of the proposed conceptual model were tested using structural equation modelling and the bias corrected bootstrapping technique. Also, the moderating effect of internet usage was examined. Study 2 featured 30 in-depth interviews with internet users.

The findings reveal that dominant service quality dimensions for ISPs were network quality, customer service, information quality and privacy. The contribution of these factors to overall service quality was moderated by the internet usage. Results of Study 2 indicate that most respondents with heavy usage found network quality indifferent among ISPs and demonstrated hesitation in direct contact with customer service, making information support the most significant dimension. Additionally, service quality directly influenced customers’ complaining and switching intention. It was clarified in Study 2 that intention to continue the contract also depended on factors such as switching barriers, value and promotional offers.

This study is original in that it is among the first studies to attempt to investigate the dimensions of an ISP’s service quality, and its influence on ISP customers’ behaviours. An additional contribution of the study stems from the incorporation of a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the internet as an emerging video distribution platform and to analyze the corresponding emerging economic and legal issues.

The paper describes the historical evolution of the business model for the television business and, using a layered model of communications, identifies issues that accompany the growth of the internet as both a complement and a competitor to existing distribution platforms.

As video is increasingly distributed using the internet, a new business model is developing that possesses characteristics such as, unbundled content, irrelevance of geographic exclusivity, irrelevance of structured time or structured release, and new business combinations, alliances, and ventures.

Public policy makers throughout the world are faced with the need to update, replace, and/or revise existing regulations that govern the relationships between and among traditional video distribution platforms, such as over‐the‐air and cable/satellite providers, as the internet emerges as a viable video distribution platform.

The paper provides a summary of key economic (such as the network‐affiliate relationship) and regulatory issues (such as leveraging economic power in the physical and logical layers into the applications and content layers and the extension of content regulation) that are developing as the internet emerges as a video distribution platform.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the key uncertainties and to construct alternative future scenarios for Internet content delivery. The relative positions and roles of different actors and content delivery technologies in each scenario are then discussed. As traffic volume rapidly grows, the current Internet architecture faces scalability issues. To meet the demand, technical solutions utilizing caching and name-based routing are developed.

This work followed a scenario planning process, and two workshops were organized for identifying the key trends and uncertainties. Industry architecture notation was used to systematically illustrate and compare the constructed scenarios.

Of the 94 forces identified, the revenue model and Internet service provider's (ISP’s) role in content provision were singled out as the two most important uncertainties, upon which four scenarios were constructed. In-network caching technologies are strong candidates in ISP-dominated scenarios. Content delivery networks are more likely outcomes in scenarios, where content providers’ role is significant.

The paper focuses on qualitative analysis of scenarios. Utilizing, for instance, system dynamics to model interdependencies between the trends and uncertainties could provide a path toward quantitative analysis.

The paper increases understanding of relative positions and roles of different actors and technologies in possible future scenarios. The findings are important, especially for ISPs, content providers and technology vendors. The scenarios can be used to identify desirable futures and strategies to achieve them and to make informed choices in technology design to meet the demands of key actors.

The paper aims to outline the legal framework with regards to the civil liability of online intermediaries for users' misconduct in China, to analyze the problems in applying the rules related, and to introduce recent efforts from the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and legislature to combat online misconduct.

The paper intends to introduce these rules by studying the legislative history and several important case decisions. Comparisons with European and American approaches have also been made with regard to the self‐regulation issue.

Chinese courts have made many inconsistent decisions on the liabilities of online intermediaries in the past, but the legal framework is improving and the situation will become better given more clarifications from the Supreme People's Court. The State proactively promotes industry self‐regulation, together with public supervision in order to ensure the enforcement of rules.

This paper gives a systematical analysis and thorough introduction to online intermediaries' liability since the first case in 1990s to the latest report, law amendment and provisions before July 2012 in China.

Cyberspace is an international community, thus, the worldwide harmonisation of cyber law shall be approached. An introduction of the Chinese legal framework and any latest updates from the State would be valuable for foreign policy makers and foreign online service providers to learn the Chinese situation and evaluate the Chinese internet market.