[ih] How long did it take?

Brian E Carpenter brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com
Wed Sep 16 22:39:27 PDT 2026


DATAPAC "opened for use in 1976 as the world's first public data network designed specifically for X.25." [Wikipedia]

Canada won, thanks to Peter Cashin and his experience at NPL under Donald Davies. DATAPAC was definitely first in the world, before PSS (Packet Switch Stream) was operational in the UK.

Regards/Ngā mihi
    Brian

On 17-Sep-26 14:59, Dave Crocker via Internet-history wrote:
> 
>> If the X.25 service came out in 83
> 
> 
> It came out earlier than that.  In the NSF meeting that produced CSNet,
> circa 1981, there was general awareness that X.25 was already
> commercially deployed.  Most folk thought the proffered services were
> like the Arpanet's host-host packet service and were quite surprised to
> hear the, really, what was being sold for customers was X.28/X.29 -- ie,
> telnet.
> 
> The initial email-based dial-up CSNet service was the fallback, for
> initial operation.
> 
> I don't know when 'raw' X.25 became a viable commercial service. Perhaps
> that what the above 1983 date meant?
> 
> d/
> 


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