As the Internet has become

Does this "as" mean "because=since" or "incremental change meaning of while"?

e14
ex)As the Internet has become a main tool of communication and information access, people say that it will replace traditional paper-based books. Because of the introduction of e-books, it is getting easier to read literature through the Internet...

It's a pretty confused sentence that seems to want to be a bit of both!
The writer should probably have gone for "Now that the internet has become etc"
or stuck with "As" but used a Present Perfect later on "...people have started to say that it will..."

Either way a Present Perfect is needed somewhere because we are referencing NOW with a change from the PAST.

I agree with Martin and a main tool doesn't help much either.