Economics of the Internet

9320481 互联网是一个全球性的网络。 截至1993年5月，它连接了10，000多个不同的网络，包括150多万台独立的计算机。 在过去的五年里，NSFNET主干网（最大但不是唯一的主干网）上到互联网的流量每月增长约11%，这意味着它每七个月翻一番。 互联网被认为是国家研究和教育网络（NREN）的模型，该网络是国会于1992年通过的50亿美元HPCC计划的重点。 关于互联网主干的商业化和私有化、对传输提供者和信息服务提供者的管理、保护电子形式的知识产权以及公众利用信息基础设施等问题，已经作出了重要的政策决定。 这些决定是在经济学家几乎没有参与的情况下做出的。 该项目将阐明广域数据网络的经济背景：成本、定价、投资和增长。 它审查了竞争和行业结构，并解决了重要的监管问题，随着数据，电话和视频技术和市场开始合并。 此外，它还开发了在这种网络中有效分配资源的机制。

9320481 The Internet is a worldwide network of networks. As of May 1993 it connects over 10,000 different networks, comprising over 1.5 million separate computers. Traffic on the NSFNET backbone to the Internet (the largest but not the only backbone) has been growing at about 11% per month over the last five years; this means it has been doubling every seven months. The Internet is considered to be the model for the National Research and Education Network (NREN) that is the focus of the $5 billion HPCC program adopted by Congress in 1992. Important policy decisions are already being made about the commercialization and privatization of the Internet backbones, regulation of transmission providers and information service providers, the protection of intellectual property in electronic form, and public access to information infrastructure. These decisions are being made with little input from economists. This project will clarify the economic context for wide-area data networks: costs, pricing, investment, and growth. It examines competition and industry structure, and address the important regulatory questions that follow as data, telephone and video technologies and markets begin to merge. Furthermore it develops mechanisms for efficient resource allocation in such networks.