15 years ago, every geek and his dog owned an ISP. Well, almost. But in today’s world of ISPs acting as content distributors, that number has dwindled dramatically. Andrew Colley at Australian IT tells us that according to research from iiNet, more than 200 small ISPs have disappeared in just the past year alone.
The report, which has measured the ISP market for the past three years, noted that the number of smaller ISPs around Australia has dropped from around 450 to just 250 in the past 12 months or so. The reason, as Gus over at Lifehacker points out, is that the larger ISPs have enough size and influence to be able to install their own equipment at exchanges, and can therefore offer better pricing and launch new products.
But given the fact that many of these closing ISPs began in a time where dialup was king and the benefit of having a local provider was in the fact that connecting to the net was just a local call, the demise of local ISPs is hardly surprising, even if it is a little sad.
[Australian IT via Lifehacker]