[ih] AOL in perspective

[Jorge Amodio]

“Fascinating…”

I remember the days of Tymnet and X.25. 

When we had to build the global network for the AR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the mid/late 80s Internet was not there yet to be a transport network, we had to rely in many cases to whatever was available in each country. 

The common denominator was X.25/X.28 via dialup, and UUCP mostly via dialup.

AOL was not an option, and as far as I remember in 1985 it was Quantum Computer Services, there was that thing Q-Link for the Commodore 64/128.

Regards
-Jorge

> On Aug 19, 2025, at 20:44, Vint Cerf via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> I asked Steve Case about AOL's ultimately adoption of Internet as a
> transport medium. Here is his answer (sharing with permission):
> 
> Steve Case
> 7:15 PM (2 hours ago)
> to me
> 
> Hi Vint.  When we launched in 1985 we of course had to build everything
> ourselves, as the Internet was still limited to non commercial use.  And
> the only way to access online serv ices of that era (The Source,
> CompuServe, etc) was via the x.25 dialup networks provided by Sprint,
> Tymnet, etc   We got started with limited bandwidth (300 baud!) and limited
> CPU capability (Commodore 64!) and that forced some design decisions -
> including loading graphics onto floppy discs so we didn’t have to transmit
> much data, but could have a compelling graphics interface (unlike the other
> offerings which were all text only).  We did the best we could with this
> “doing our own thing” strategy while we waited for the day that we could
> add Internet features (email etc) to our offerings and leverage the
> Internet data capabilities to provide a TCP/IP alternative to X.25 (which
> we became convinced was more scalable with faster speeds and lower costs).
> We also worked for several years to get Congress to commercialize the
> Internet, ultimately leading to the Telecom Act.  We were as I recall the
> first “online service” to add WAIS, Gopher, etc to our service, when it was
> allowed, and also were early and fairly aggressive investors in building
> out TCP-IP networks (including buying ANS from IBM so we could build more
> network capacity more quickly and be less reliant on providers such as
> Sprint, who were trying to milk their legacy x.25 networks and were
> therefore slow to invest in TCP/IP).   That enabled us to then be able to
> move from hourly pricing to flat rate unlimited pricing which – no surprise
> – propelled our growth. And we then started making various AOL features
> (such as instant messaging/texting) as Internet features that didn’t
> require AOL membership (including AOL Instant Messenger – AIM).  And then
> we started buying Internet companies including Netscape and many others (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_AOL).  So the simple
> answer to your question is when we started in 1985 we had to do everything
> ourselves as it was illegal for us to connect to the Internet, but over the
> next decade we were all in – in many ways – to embrace the Internet – and
> ultimately AOL’s dramatic growth in the late 1990s was because it was the
> easiest, cheapest, fastest way for consumers to be on the Internet, and we
> offered a range of other services that were exclusive to AOL – so we were
> able to successfully position AOL as “the Internet and a whole lot more”
> and leverage to ease of use with branding focused on “it’s s easy to use,
> no wonder it’s #1”.   At the time I remember that some (including public
> market investors) viewed the Internet as a threat to AOL, but I believed it
> was an opportunity, and that’s why we went from being a small company to a
> big company fairly quickly (market cap went from $70m when we went public
> in 1992 to $160b eght years later when we merged with Time Warner in 2000).
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Please send any postal/overnight deliveries to:
> Vint Cerf
> Google, LLC
> 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, 16th Floor
> Reston, VA 20190
> +1 (571) 213 1346
> 
> 
> until further notice
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