After following all directions, submit your two- or three-page response that focuses on the interconnected Internet.

The Internet comprises thousands of independently owned, managed, and operated networks that connect with one another to create the global Internet. In order to exchange data between users across the Internet, individual networks make direct connections with one another, as well as indirect connections through other providers that transport data traffic. The overall goal of interconnection is to ensure that content and data can get to and from end users in a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective way. Interconnection on the Internet is achieved via voluntary and independently negotiated agreements between network operators, who work to agree on where and on what terms they will connect with one another. This model of voluntarily negotiated interconnection agreements produces both technical and economic benefits. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes, for example, that the Internet model of interconnection and traffic exchange has resulted in lower prices, greater efficiency, and more innovation, while helping to attract the investment necessary to keep up with growing Internet demand. These benefits have been achieved without the need for top-down planning or international regulation. The flexibility of this system enables networks to make agreements with others based on their evolving requirements and has helped individual networks, and the Internet as a whole, to adapt to new and evolving patterns of Internet use.