"Open Access" refers to a specialised and focused business model, in which a network infrastructure provider limits its activities to a fixed set of value layers in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Open Access provider remains neutral and independent and offers standard and transparent pricing to ISPs on its network.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, with the rise of packet switching—as used on the Internet—and IP-based and wireless technologies, it became possible to design, build, and operate a single high performance network capable of delivering hundreds of services from multiple, competing providers.
However, "last mile" OANs in the United States have begun to attract more interest as rural and suburban communities seek to catalyze economic development.
In the US, open access networks like municipality owned The Wired Road[1] in Virginia have been able to attract both local and regional service providers quickly.
Australia also has the recently formed government owned corporation NBN Co, who are creating the National Broadband Network to provide open-access fiber to the node at one gigabit per second for more than ninety-three percent of homes and businesses in the country, and fixed wireless and satellite technologies with a minimum speed of twelve megabits per second to the remainder of the population.