Online service provider

An online service or online service is a commercial or non-profit provider that offers its customers to dial into a ( private or open ) computer network and your own content in this network.

A distinction is made between Internet service providers that operate their own infrastructure (eg Tier 1 carriers) and those who operate their own Internet backbone ( Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers) and therefore with other providers traffic (german traffic) need to buy:

Classic online services are Minitel, BTX (now T-Online), AOL, CompuServe, MSN, etc. Almost all the still existing online services offer access to the Internet as an integral part of.