in 1993-1994, many companies rushed to put up Web pages, but total traffic was still low, and it was possible to just use the company's own ISP connection to do SO. However, that approach quickly grew tired. The biggest cost of an Internet connection was often the telephone company connection from the ISP to the corporate site. That was, after all, usu- ally a monopoly, and prices of these circuits were set, like long distance service, at "contributory" levels. As demand grew, it became impractical to raise the bandwidth of this costly link just to present information to the outside world. So companies started collocating their Web servers at their ISPs' locations. As previously noted, ISPs often had Web hosting services, taking advan- tage of their own backbone connections. Some IXCs and ISPs also rented out collocation racks as a business. They did not necessarily operate the servers, but they did provide secure, air-conditioned facilities where customers could get ample backbone bandwidth for their collocated servers. Wiltel, for instance, began hosting AOLnet modem racks shortly before being acquired by World- Com; it also provided the backbone connections to AOL's Virginia headquar- ters. By the time AOL's modem traffic peaked, WorldCom had hundreds of racks of modems in dozens of facilities. Many new dotcom companies did not even have large offices or computer rooms of their own; the bulk of their band- width never came closer than their ISP's collocation room. As the dotcom boom grew, space grew tight and rates rose. Racks were renting for $1,000 per month, sometimes more, and that did not include any bandwidth. Still, the collocation rooms filled up. Customers that needed more than a rack or two might want a room of their own; a 100-square-foot room in an ISP's building might go for $10,000 per month. And that was typically the smallest size room. Soon, other companies simply opened up physical facilities in which oth- ers could collocate their servers. They would arrange for the telecom carriers and back