Which was the worlds first Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

Answer 1

Hmm..no one seems to be answering your question directly, so I'll see if I can offer anything useful to you.

As another respondent has pointed out, the thing we now call "the internet" began as a means for researchers at different universities and research organizations to work cooperatively on projects funded by the US Department of Defense. The DoD called this project the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).

Early efforts allowed the computers to connect to one another, but there was no standard set of protocols - if you wanted to connect with the computer at University A, you would have to go through one procedure, but if you wanted to connect to the computer at University B, you were required to carry out an entirely different process. A scientist at NASA, Bob Taylor, is credited as the originator of the idea of creating a 'network' to link all of the computers in the ARPA program together. On Labor Day of 1969, the first successful connection was made, and the ARPANET had been born. Within two years, the ARPANET connected 23 different computers at 15 different sites across the country.

It wasn't until the mid-1980s that a similar network of computers was formed for users who weren't part of the government's ARPA project - this first competing network was created (again by an agency of the US government) by the National Science Foundation - it was known as the NSFNET. We're still not up to the era of private networking - all of the NSFNET members were universities and research labs as well.

The first real "ISP" was created at a meeting of New York State universities in 1985. NYSERNET was incorporated as the first ISP - but it still wasn't available for use by the general public. That step didn't occur until 1989, when two computer guys, Marty Schoffstall and Bill Schrader engineered a leveraged buyout of a portion of NYSERNET. They called their new company PSINet, and PSINet became the first entity to offer commercial internet services on a large scale basis.

In 1990, the ARPANET closed down, and today's 'internet" was defined by a the NSFNet backbone and a good sized number of public, commercial internet service providers.

PSINet failed in June of 2001, and was acquired by Cogent Communications in April 2002.

Answer 2

Who Was The First Isp

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Which was the worlds first Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

Answer 4

Prodigy was the first major, nationally available ISP. There were many BBS (bulletin board services) but they were usually targeted towards very specific groups of users. Gopher, Archie, FTP, Telnet etc. were available to universities and corporations, but consumers did not have access to them until Prodigy was started

Answer 5

TheWorld.com was the first commercial ISP

Answer 6

Good question -- seems everyone online is claiming to be "it."

The first one I have listed here is the only one that seems to be from a printed source... out of all the ones that published their opening dates... this one seems to have the earliest opening date... so, for what it's worth... here are the results of my brief search for an answer to your question...

NYSERNet?
This claims to hail from the Central New York Business Journal Oct 12, 1998 (out of all these shady claims... I would trust this one most... but not with my life):
"Founded in 1985, NYSERNet (www.nysernetorg) is one of the Internet's original not-for-profit pioneers. The world's first Internet service provider"
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3718/is_199810/ai_n8812058

@TheWorld?
"Since 1989, we were the first public dialup Internet Service Provider (ISP) on the planet."
http://www.theworld.com/
"Barry Shein, the founder of The World, the world's first internet service provider."
http://www.philodox.com/beacon.html

IDS?
"IDS began in 1989 as the world's first Internet Service Provider."
http://idsdialup1.ids.net/ids/pr.html

PSINet?
"Mr. Jensen served as an original executive at PSINet (NASDAQ: PSIX), the world's first Internet Service Provider."
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/s1_alumni.html
"Jensen was one of the original executives at PSINet, the world's first Internet service provider."
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/772371

Delphi?
"at News Corp.'s Internet subsidiary, Delphi Internet Services Corporation – the world's first Internet Service Provider for consumers."
http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/staff/staff.html

TLG ("The Little Garden")?
(my first thought on this one is, "yeah, sure, right")
"software developer Tom Jennings (inventor of FidoNet and founder of TLG, "The Little Garden", the world's first Internet Service Provider)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Mutant_Handbook

SURAnet?
(all these quotes pertain to Glenn Ricart, PhD)
"In 1984, he started the first Internet service provider (ISP) to accept commercial customers, SURAnet. SURAnet became part of Genuity a decade later."
http://www.isoc.org/members/vote/2002election/profiles/ricart.shtml
"Ricart is credited with building the original NSFnet backbone and SURAnet, the world’s first Internet service provider."
http://www.cmps.umd.edu/pics/cmps_s02.pdf
"Founder of the first commercial internet service provider, SURAnet"
http://www.centerbeam.com/news_room/press_releases/stories/PRGlennRicard.html
"founded or co-founded three successful businesses, including the world's first Internet Service Provider..."
http://www.partnersusu.org/archives/03_04/it_speaker_bios/glen_ricart.htm

Answer 7

Flintphones?

Answer 8

The US military, which is who invented the net.

Answer 9

I think it was NetZero, and it was free, a long time ago.