A Virtual ISP (VISP), also known as an Affinity ISP, is an

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

(ISP) that resells the resources of existing ISPs under another brand name.

Overview

A Virtual ISP (''VISP'') purchases services from another ISP (sometimes called a wholesale ISP or similar within this context) that allow the VISP's customers to access the Internet via one or more

Points of Presence A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or network interface point between communicating entities. A common example is an ISP point of presence, the local access point that allows users to connect to the Internet with their ...

(PoPs) that are owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. Virtual ISPs can vary from a normal ISP buying access points off a third party to a complete

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service where the branding of the VISP is usually such as to portray the image of being an ISP in their own right. There are various models for the delivery of Virtual ISPs. As an example a wholesale ISP could provide network access to end users via its

dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

PoPs or

DSLAM A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM, often pronounced ''DEE-slam'') is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital co ...

s installed in

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...

s, and route, switch, and/or

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the end-user traffic to the VISP's network, whereupon they may route the traffic toward its destination. In another model, the wholesale ISP does not route any end-user traffic, and needs only provide

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(Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) functions, as well as any

value-add In business, total value added is calculated by tabulating the unit value added (measured by summing unit profit Price.html" ;"title="he difference between Price">sale price and production cost], unit depreciation cost, and unit Direct labor cos ...

services, like

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. A complete VISP will consist of a pure rebranding of another ISP offering where the host ISP manages all aspects of the service. This model is commonly used for charities and other affinity organisations where 'MyOrganisation' ISP is actually a virtual service on another ISP. Any given ISP may use their own PoPs to deliver one service, and use a VISP model to deliver another service, or, use a combination to deliver a service in different areas. The service provided by a wholesale ISP in a VISP model is distinct from that of an upstream ISP, even though, in some cases, they may both be one and the same company. The former provides connectivity from the end-user's premises to the Internet or to the end-user's ISP, and the latter provides connectivity from the end user's ISP to all or parts of the rest of the Internet. A VISP can also be a dial-up

service offered to anyone at no cost or for a minimal setup fee. The actual ISP providing the service generates revenue from the calls and may also share a percentage of that revenue with the owner of the VISP. All technical aspects are dealt with, leaving the owner of VISP with the task of promoting the service. This sort of service is, however, declining due to the popularity of unmetered dial-up access.

History

The world's first Virtual ISP was pioneered by the UK arm of the Canadian Intasys Corporation (now Ace*Comm) in partnership with

Easynet Easynet was a managed services provider and delivered integrated networks, hosting and unified communications services to organisations globally. The company was later renamed Easynet Global Services, and a sister company, Easynet Connect, was fo ...

. Called 'Intasys Online' the VISP was launched in London in 1996 and was used primarily as a demonstration ISP for other virtual ISPs. Intasys operated successfully as a branded ISP provider providing virtual ISPs for clients until the internet arm was sold to Zygo Productions in 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Virtual Isp Internet service providers