3 ms·

This is not correct for access open to the general public. The first commercial ISP in Utah, Xmission, was founded in 1993. Yes, many of us had internet access

by dgacmu 3y ago

This is not correct for access open to the general public. The first commercial ISP in Utah, Xmission, was founded in 1993. Yes, many of us had internet access through the University of Utah before that (Pete Ashdown, the founder, had worked at Evans & Sutherland, which had quite good internet connectivity). But most people did not if they weren't associated with a university. (I helped create the third public ISP in Utah (ArosNet), in 1995). V34 (28.8k) was only ratified in 1994, and many ISPs were still at 14.4 at that time. Many customers still used much slower modems - 9600 remained quite common. The commercial Internet really only started taking off in 1993. Not by coincidence, that was the same year NCSA Mosaic was released.

jacquesm 3y ago
I was still fighting local telcos in Canada in 2003 to get filters removed so I could go above 9600 baud.
- YZF 3y ago
  I moved to Canada in 2002 and my 56k modem worked just fine and I'm pretty sure (though I might be misremembering) cable and ADSL were already around (I think people were amused that I was still using dialup). I'm sure some other parts were behind. I think I had Internet access around 1984 or so, lived near a university (this was not in the US so must have been some early international connection). Before that we had BITNET (IBM's network) and uucp. My first networking from home experience was with a 300bps modem to an IBM mainframe using a terminal program I wrote myself on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was a pretty crappy half-duplex but pretty exciting as a kid. A trip down memory lane...
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    This was St. Josephs Island. As soon as we had a little WiFi based ISP up and running suddenly broadband was available. Wonder why...
photonerd 3y ago
Wow, Utah really lagged on getting an ISP, huh? From a UK perspective: my family got dual up in ‘94, there were lots of ISP options & it was basically impossible to buy anything slower than 28.8k new (at retail anyhow, I’m sure you could special order) as no-where stocked them. 28.8 took over fast. I think the UK had lots pf ISPs at the time because without a local number to call it was VERY expensive rather than just kinda expensive. But that’s just a guess.
- dgacmu 3y ago
  Population density helps a lot with internet access. Distance to COs is smaller, easier to wire, shorter backhaul, etc. The salt lake city metro area had reasonable density but, particularly 30 years ago, it wasn't like .. most places in the UK or Europe.
- supportlocal4h 3y ago
  Commercial ISP. People had dialup internet access before there were commercial ISPs.
  - photonerd 3y ago
    Yes, I’m aware. That’s what I was talking about
riceart 3y ago
> This is not correct for access open to the general public. The first commercial ISP in Utah, Xmission, was founded in 1993. Yes, many of us had internet access through the University of Utah before that (Pete Ashdown, the founder, had worked at Evans & Sutherland, which had quite good internet connectivity). > The commercial Internet really only started taking off in 1993. 1993 is before 1994. I am very much scratching my head by how this contradicts anything I stated in a way that makes it not correct. If a commercial ISP existed in 1993, then by 1994 plenty of regular people would have been getting internet access - without any special affiliation other than a credit card - ie mainstream. (Per your own comment “many had internet access before that”) - those affiliated were among the first to have internet access is a pretty reasonable interpretation and that was well before 1994 in all of the continental US.
- dgacmu 3y ago
  It wasn't "way after" in Utah. Xmission turned on in October 1993. They grew a lot in 1994 but most people in the valley still did not have internet access yet. By 1996 the situation was very different - but 94 was still early in the Utah Internet days. The growth in Internet adoption was so rapid during those 3 years that the difference just between 94 and 95 was quite large. And yes, many faculty, students, and staff at the U had access. But that was like 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million.
  - riceart 3y ago
    Ok not “way” after - really splitting hairs here. Point still stands public commercial dialup internet was available pretty much everywhere. Call them early adopters or whatever - but the internet already had established communities well before 1994. > 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on the interpretation of what “first families”. In the context I read that post it sounded like someone saying they were among literally the first few, not 50k to 100k when anyone with a credit card could order service. First families in my interpretation would be those that probably had access from their parent’s university shell account. This follows with the claim 15 minutes to load a single webpage - but unless you were on a shitty rural phone line running 2400bps it’s not like everyone’s dialup internet access at the time was that limited. Some had to put up with that but the tech in 1994 was not that primitive.
deleted 3y ago
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by dgacmu 3y ago

jacquesm 3y ago

I was still fighting local telcos in Canada in 2003 to get filters removed so I could go above 9600 baud.

YZF 3y ago
I moved to Canada in 2002 and my 56k modem worked just fine and I'm pretty sure (though I might be misremembering) cable and ADSL were already around (I think people were amused that I was still using dialup). I'm sure some other parts were behind. I think I had Internet access around 1984 or so, lived near a university (this was not in the US so must have been some early international connection). Before that we had BITNET (IBM's network) and uucp. My first networking from home experience was with a 300bps modem to an IBM mainframe using a terminal program I wrote myself on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was a pretty crappy half-duplex but pretty exciting as a kid. A trip down memory lane...
- jacquesm 3y ago
  This was St. Josephs Island. As soon as we had a little WiFi based ISP up and running suddenly broadband was available. Wonder why...

photonerd 3y ago

Wow, Utah really lagged on getting an ISP, huh? From a UK perspective: my family got dual up in ‘94, there were lots of ISP options & it was basically impossible to buy anything slower than 28.8k new (at retail anyhow, I’m sure you could special order) as no-where stocked them. 28.8 took over fast. I think the UK had lots pf ISPs at the time because without a local number to call it was VERY expensive rather than just kinda expensive. But that’s just a guess.

dgacmu 3y ago
Population density helps a lot with internet access. Distance to COs is smaller, easier to wire, shorter backhaul, etc. The salt lake city metro area had reasonable density but, particularly 30 years ago, it wasn't like .. most places in the UK or Europe.
supportlocal4h 3y ago
Commercial ISP. People had dialup internet access before there were commercial ISPs.
- photonerd 3y ago
  Yes, I’m aware. That’s what I was talking about

riceart 3y ago

> This is not correct for access open to the general public. The first commercial ISP in Utah, Xmission, was founded in 1993. Yes, many of us had internet access through the University of Utah before that (Pete Ashdown, the founder, had worked at Evans & Sutherland, which had quite good internet connectivity). > The commercial Internet really only started taking off in 1993. 1993 is before 1994. I am very much scratching my head by how this contradicts anything I stated in a way that makes it not correct. If a commercial ISP existed in 1993, then by 1994 plenty of regular people would have been getting internet access - without any special affiliation other than a credit card - ie mainstream. (Per your own comment “many had internet access before that”) - those affiliated were among the first to have internet access is a pretty reasonable interpretation and that was well before 1994 in all of the continental US.

dgacmu 3y ago
It wasn't "way after" in Utah. Xmission turned on in October 1993. They grew a lot in 1994 but most people in the valley still did not have internet access yet. By 1996 the situation was very different - but 94 was still early in the Utah Internet days. The growth in Internet adoption was so rapid during those 3 years that the difference just between 94 and 95 was quite large. And yes, many faculty, students, and staff at the U had access. But that was like 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million.
- riceart 3y ago
  Ok not “way” after - really splitting hairs here. Point still stands public commercial dialup internet was available pretty much everywhere. Call them early adopters or whatever - but the internet already had established communities well before 1994. > 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on the interpretation of what “first families”. In the context I read that post it sounded like someone saying they were among literally the first few, not 50k to 100k when anyone with a credit card could order service. First families in my interpretation would be those that probably had access from their parent’s university shell account. This follows with the claim 15 minutes to load a single webpage - but unless you were on a shitty rural phone line running 2400bps it’s not like everyone’s dialup internet access at the time was that limited. Some had to put up with that but the tech in 1994 was not that primitive.

deleted 3y ago

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