 each user to conduct his or her own call on his or her own personal handset, when and where he or she wants to. To facilitate this, the fixed network was augmented with special mobility equipment (towers with radio antennas, databases that tracked the movement of users, etc.) that interoperated with the existing infrastructure. The invention of the browser launched the Internet in the mid-1990s. Like mobile networks, the Internet also builds on top of the fixed telecom network infrastructure, by augmenting it with spe- cial equipment (modems, routers, servers, etc.). However, the development of the Internet has not only made it possible to bring communication services to billions of people, but has also dramati- cally transformed the business and the social world. Today, the widespread use of the Internet by people all over the world and from all walks of life has made it possible for Internet Protocol (IP) to be not only the data network protocol of choice, but also the technology over which almost all forms of future networks are built, including the traditional public telephone network. At a high level, a telecom network can be thought of as comprising two main components: a core network with geographically distributed shared facilities interconnected through information trans- port systems, and an access network comprising dedicated links (copper, fiber, or radio) connecting individual users (or their premises) to the core network. The utility provided by the infrastructure is largely dependent on availability of transport capacity. The Communications Act of 1934 called for "rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges" to "all the people of the United States." This principle of universal service helped make telephone service ubiquitous. Large capital investments were made to deploy transport facilities to connect customers who needed telephone service, across wide geographic areas. The deployed transport capacity was much a