or all kinds of related products, and simplifies the processes involved in evaluating suppliers, finding and negotiating prices and identifying best practices. This kind of interaction is generally known as eBusiness, and perhaps more specifically business-to-business (B2B) eBusiness. Examples like this in the energy industry are driving expectations about what the Web and the Internet should provide: a high level of automation, customized information, a global marketplace that provides customers with a great deal of choice, and the leverage to dictate how they expect to be served. In other words the customer can say, "this is what I want and this is what I'm willing to pay to get it." This is a powerful statement that represents a radical shift in business practices for a number of industries as they embrace eBusiness. It is what users expect to gain from all of the fancy Internet technology they hear about. The role of the IICs could be to provide the necessary tools to make it all work. Chapter 1 - Introduction to IICs and OSS WHAT IS AN INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY (IIC)? It's apparent that IICs face some daunting expectations, and that they do not have much time to figure out how to meet them. But we don't yet have a clear picture of what makes an IIC. IIC is a broad term that encapsulates a number of different kinds of companies. An IIC provides some piece of what is collectively known as the Internet, or provides products or services that have been spawned by, or are closely related to, the Internet and its constituent technologies. Because the general definition is broad, we can further define IICs. One definition for an IIC is a service provider that provides physical components of the Internet. Physical components include things such as routers, ATM switches, fiber optic cable, and servers. Equipment providers who build such physical components are not considered IICs. They supply IICs with the equipment necessary to provide services. IICs deploy a complete range of equipment to build out their netwo