Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Fri Jul 11 22:58:53 UTC 2014

On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Naslund, Steve <SNaslund at medline.com> wrote:
> Here we go down the rabbit hole again.  This is not difficult.  An Internet Service Provider is an entity that provides Internet connectivity to its customers for some consideration.

> If you are looking for a legal definition of an ISP you are not going to find (a >satisfactory) one.  The FCC does have specific rules that define carriers
>such as ILEC, CLEC, RLEC, and those have definitions.  ISP is really a term
> that describes a line of business.  There is no engineering definition of an
> ISP that is defined by any regulatory body that I am aware of.

Correct.  "ISP" is  not a specific technology or business.    It is
based on what is being sold.
You can be selling customers a dial-up service where your customers
are presented with a shell prompt over the dial-in terminal connected
to a hosted Unix server you are renting with connectivity from a 56K
leased line, and you are still an ISP.

By common definitions, by the way,  Youtube has been referred to as an
ISP.   An ISP is a company that  generates revenue by providing
connectivity to internet resources (in this case:  streaming video).

Usually  ISP is used to refer to providers that are selling complete
internet connectivity, however,  not organizations that merely run one
website providing entertainment or e-commerce.

You can subdivide the idea of ISP into  various related ideas such as
"Online Service Provider",   "Network Service Provider",   "Broadband
Service Provider",  "E-mail service provider",  "Mobile Data
Provider",  etc

Which are more informative,  but generally equally vague  and informal.

--
-JH