On 1/28/20 4:22 PM, Paul Nash wrote:
Carrying on with the “first Internet connection” thread:
I forget how I found out about Usenet and UUCP email (lost in the mosts of
time). I ran a store and forward dial-up link from South Africa to DDSW1 in
Chicago (Hi Karl! Thanks!). I cobbled together a package with a DOS-based
mail reader and a DOS port of UUCP that several people used to get their email
(including a local medical research establishment and the local veterinary
college). Demand grew, along with a request to relay email to the UNHCR in
Northen Mozambique, so I scraped some money together to import a horribly
expensive Telebit modem. I ended up being the regional non-academic email hub
for Southern Africa.
Just prior to the 1994 election, I got together with a two friends (Alan Barret
and Chris Pinkham) and founded the first ISP in sub-Saharan Africa. We managed
to get a 64k satellite link at a very good price (the satellite folk were busy
being retrenched and we were prepared to sign a contract specifically requiring
satellite service for 5 years, which gave them some job security). We borrowed
a Cisco router from DiData (Cisco agents), skirted other telco regulations to
link regions.
One of our early customers was a group of students who wanted to start a small
dial ISP nearby. We gave them service, bootstrapping what became our biggest
competitor, Internet Solutions (now part of DiData, who never did ask for their
router back). Our little ISP grew and grew, and eventually merged with our
biggest client, was sold, sold again, and so on. Last time I looked, it had
become Verizon Africa.
Hello Paul
Good to hear from you. nsrc.org archived some of your notes and
reflections at the time.
Here is an email message from December 1992 that captures some of the
early ZA net history.
https://nsrc.org/db/lookup/report.php?id=890202331950:497427756&fromISO=ZA
And the first ping to the Internet from South Africa via rain.psg.com in
Oregon on November 12, 1991.
https://nsrc.org/db/lookup/report.php?id=896820262105:488982630&fromISO=ZA
And where it all began in October 1988. :-)
https://nsrc.org/db/lookup/report.php?id=896820010472:489008357&fromISO=ZA
Steve Huter
