[ih] AOL in perspective

Wed Aug 20 03:45:38 PDT 2025

In the early 1990s I worked at Sprint International (which made the packet switching equipment used in SprintNet, Sprint's packet switched network).  At the time AOL was using our X.28 PADs to connect to SprintNet.  One of AOL's marketing pushes was popular enough to cause stability problems in Sprint's bank of X.28 PADs as well as other network nodes.

One nice perk of working at Sprint was free access to PC Pursuit which provided me easy access to BBSes outside of the DC area without incurring long distance charges.  I also had free access to Usenet at work which I enjoyed so much that I had to search for an ISP which offered Usenet access when I left Sprint.

 - Rod

> On Aug 19, 2025, at 11:37 PM, Jorge Amodio via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> “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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