In the ever-expanding connectivity landscape, the smooth functioning of the internet is vital for homes and businesses. If you look under the hood, there is the physical infrastructure that supports this network of networks (the world wide web), and service providers work hard to ensure the seamless flow of data across the world continues day in and day out. Among the crucial parts of making the internet work are network wholesalers, who often fly under the radar. In this post, we will explore the significant role that internet network wholesalers play in powering the internet.
Who are the network wholesalers in Australia?
- Nbn
- Opticomm
- Frontier Networks
- Lightning Wholesale
- ASN Telecom
- Redtrain
What are network wholesalers?
Internet network wholesalers (AKA carriers, network service providers), are organisations that operate at the foundational level of internet connectivity. What does that mean? They own and manage the physical infrastructure that forms the backbone of the internet. Infrastructure includes fibre optic and copper cables, data centres, servers and other various network equipment. Their main job is to build and maintain the network infrastructure required to keep data moving around the world.
Why are they important?
The physical infrastructure (the backbone of the internet), is vital to enabling connectivity. The wires, datacentres, servers and other hardware establish interconnections between different networks and service providers to ensure data can seamlessly flow to different locations both nationally and internationally.
Some providers have subsea cables enabling international data transfer. Watching a special submarine lay these cables is really something magical to see – check it out on YouTube if you get the chance!
How do they relate to home internet?
While home internet users interact with internet service providers (ISPs) such as Leaptel, ISPs rely on network wholesalers for the underlying infrastructure. Wholesalers lease network capacity to ISPs, allowing them to offer internet services to their customers without needing to build and maintain their own physical network. Furthermore, wholesalers enable ISPs to offer a range of services such as broadband, virtual private networks, cloud service and more.
Network wholesalers often fly under the radar of the average home internet user. Whilst their presence is often unnoticed, their role in making the internet work is indispensable. Without wholesalers, ISPs wouldn’t be able to offer a wide range of services to end users as their physical infrastructure is the backbone of our internet and in Australia, we’re fortunate to have a variety of wholesalers offering connectivity to a number of homes and businesses.