Tier 2 ISPs are the next tier in terms of backbone access. Tier 2 ISPs can also be very large, even extending across several countries, but very few have networks that span entire continents or between continents. To provide their customers with global Internet access, some Tier 2 ISPs pay Tier 1 ISPs to carry their traffic to other parts of the world. Some Tier 2 ISPs exchange global traffic with other ISPs less expensively through public peering at IXPs. A large IXP may bring together hundreds of ISPs in a central physical location for access to multiple networks over a shared connection.