[ih] Commercial ISPs (Re: Some Questions over IPv4 Ownership)

[Craig Partridge]

> On 10/12/2010 15:00 EDT, Ofer Inbar wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 08:03:49PM -0700,
> > jfh <jack at 3kitty.org> wrote:
> >> Somewhere along the line, commercial ISPs popped into being.  I'm
> >> not sure who was first, but my recollection is that this happened as
> >> spinoffs from NSFNet and/or CSNet.  Again, there must have been some
> >> kind of agreements between those commercial entities and a piece of
> >> the government, detailing the rules about ownership.  These first
> >> ISPs were different because they were not research collaborators.
> >> They were in business simply to make money selling Internet service.
> > 
> > Software Tool & Die's (aka "the World") was the first commercial
> > consumer ISP, and UUNET was the first commercial IP network provider -
> > who sold IP service to STD.
> 
> The way I remember it:
> 
> STD provided Internet services but they were not a network.
> 
> UUNET was a non-profit exchange, not a network, until 1990 (?)
> 
> PSINet was started as a network, with NYSERNet members as an instant
> installed base, in 1989.

CSNET started in 1981 with a goal of achieving profitability within a few
years (which it achieved).  NSFNET modeled the NSF regional networks, in
part, on the CSNET model.

Thanks!

Craig