<P> The British Post Office, Western Union International and Tymnet collaborated to create the first international packet switched network, referred to as the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS), in 1978 . This network grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia by 1981 . By the 1990s it provided a worldwide networking infrastructure . </P> <P> Unlike ARPANET, X. 25 was commonly available for business use . Telenet offered its Telemail electronic mail service, which was also targeted to enterprise use rather than the general email system of the ARPANET . </P> <P> The first public dial - in networks used asynchronous TTY terminal protocols to reach a concentrator operated in the public network . Some networks, such as CompuServe, used X. 25 to multiplex the terminal sessions into their packet - switched backbones, while others, such as Tymnet, used proprietary protocols . In 1979, CompuServe became the first service to offer electronic mail capabilities and technical support to personal computer users . The company broke new ground again in 1980 as the first to offer real - time chat with its CB Simulator . Other major dial - in networks were America Online (AOL) and Prodigy that also provided communications, content, and entertainment features . Many bulletin board system (BBS) networks also provided on - line access, such as FidoNet which was popular amongst hobbyist computer users, many of them hackers and amateur radio operators . </P> <P> In 1979, two students at Duke University, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, originated the idea of using Bourne shell scripts to transfer news and messages on a serial line UUCP connection with nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Following public release of the software in 1980, the mesh of UUCP hosts forwarding on the Usenet news rapidly expanded . UUCPnet, as it would later be named, also created gateways and links between FidoNet and dial - up BBS hosts . UUCP networks spread quickly due to the lower costs involved, ability to use existing leased lines, X. 25 links or even ARPANET connections, and the lack of strict use policies compared to later networks like CSNET and Bitnet . All connects were local . By 1981 the number of UUCP hosts had grown to 550, nearly doubling to 940 in 1984 .--Sublink Network, operating since 1987 and officially founded in Italy in 1989, based its interconnectivity upon UUCP to redistribute mail and news groups messages throughout its Italian nodes (about 100 at the time) owned both by private individuals and small companies . Sublink Network represented possibly one of the first examples of the Internet technology becoming progress through popular diffusion . </P>

When was the internet made for public use