Telenet was a packet switched network which went into service in 1974. It was the first publicly available commercial packet-switched network service.
The original founding company,
Telenet Inc., was established by Larry Roberts (former head of the
ARPANetThe ARPANET created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet....
), and Barry Wessler.
GTEGTE Corporation was the largest of the "independent" US telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. It acquired the third largest independent, Continental Telephone in 1991...
acquired Telenet in 1979. It was later acquired by Sprint and called "Sprintnet". Sprint migrated customers from Telenet to the modern-day
SprintLink IPThe Internet Protocol is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP....
network, one of many networks composing today's
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Telenet was a packet switched network which went into service in 1974. It was the first publicly available commercial packet-switched network service.
The original founding company,
Telenet Inc., was established by Larry Roberts (former head of the
ARPANetThe ARPANET created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet....
), and Barry Wessler.
GTEGTE Corporation was the largest of the "independent" US telephone companies during the days of the Bell System. It acquired the third largest independent, Continental Telephone in 1991...
acquired Telenet in 1979. It was later acquired by Sprint and called "Sprintnet". Sprint migrated customers from Telenet to the modern-day
SprintLink IPThe Internet Protocol is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP....
network, one of many networks composing today's
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Telenet had its first offices in downtown Washington DC, then moved to McLean, Virginia. It was acquired by GTE while in McLean, and then moved offices in Reston, Virginia.
Under the various names, the company operated a public network, and also sold its packet switching equipment to other carriers and to large enterprise networks.
Coverage
Originally, the public network had switching nodes in seven US cities:
- Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
(network operations center as well as switching)
- Boston, MA
- New York, NY
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- San Francisco, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
The switching nodes were fed by Telenet Access Controller (TAC) terminal concentrators both colocated and remote from the switches. By 1980, there were over 1000 switches in the public network. At that time, the next largest network using Telenet switches was that of Southern Bell, which had approximately 250 switches.
Internal Network Technology
The initial network used statically-defined hop-by-hop routing, using Prime commercial minicomputers as switches, but then migrated to a purpose-built multiprocessing switch based on 6502 microprocessors. Among the innovations of this second-generation switch was a patented arbitrated bus interface that created a switching fabric, a shared bus in modern terms, among the microprocessors .
Most interswitch lines ran at 56 kbit/s, with a few, such as New York-Washington, at T1 (i.e., 1.544 Mbit/s). The main internal protocol was a proprietary variant on X.75; Telenet also ran standard X.75 gateways to other packet switching networks.
Originally, the switching tables could not be altered separately from the main executable code, and topology updates had to be made by deliberately crashing the switch code and forcing a reboot from the network management center. Improvements in the software allowed new tables to be loaded, but the network never used dynamic routing protocols. Multiple static routes, on a switch-by-switch basis, could be defined for fault tolerance. Network management functions continued to run on Prime minicomputers.
Its
X.25X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
host interface was the first in the industry and Telenet helped standardize X.25 in the CCITT.
Basic Asynchronous Access
Users could use modems on the
Public Switched Telephone NetworkThe public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the network of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks...
to dial TAC ports, calling either from "dumb" terminals or from computers emulating such terminals. Organizations with a large number of local terminals could install a TAC on their own site, which used a dedicated line, at up to 56 kbit/s, to connect to a switch at the nearest Telenet location. Dialup modems supported had a maximum speed of 1200 bit/s, and later 4800 bit/s.
Computer Access
Computers supporting the X.25 protocol could connect directly to switching centers. These connections ranged from 2.4 to 56 kbit/s.
Other Access Protocols
Telenet supported remote concentrators for IBM 3270 family intelligent terminals, which communicated, via X.25, to Telenet-written software that ran in IBM 370x series front-end processors. Telenet also supported Block Mode Terminal Interfaces (BMTI) for IBM Remote Job Entry terminals supporting the 2780/3780 and HASP bisync protocols.
PC Pursuit
In the late 1980s, Telenet offered a service called PC Pursuit. For a flat monthly fee, customers could dial into the Telenet network in one city, then dial out on the modems in another city to access bulletin board systems and other services. PC Pursuit was popular among computer hobbyists because it sidestepped long-distance charges. In this sense, PC Pursuit was a forerunner of
Voice over IPVoice over Internet Protocol is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks...
services.
Cities accessible by PC Pursuit
| City Code | Area Code(s) | City |
|---|
| AZPHO | 602 Image:Area_code_602.png|right|Map of Arizona area codes in blue with 602 in redpoly 0 0 73 58 14 59 14 100 0 90 Area code 775poly 73 58 68 92 64 92 58 88 48 88 51 125 49 135 13 98 10 58 Area code 702...
| Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the fifth most populous city in the United States...
|
| CAGLE | 818 | Glendale, CaliforniaGlendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, is bisected by the Verdugo Mountains, and is a suburb in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
|
| CALAN | 213 North American area code 213 is a California telephone area code which was one of California's original three area codes. The 213 area code was created in October 1947...
| Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
|
| CODEN | 303 Image:Area_codes_CO.svg|right|thumbs|Map of Colorado area codes in blue poly 67 8 381 26 380 108 356 107 352 131 343 130 340 107 326 102 320 104 301 104 301 85 282 85 287 77 263 77 259 84 216 79 204 102 182 125 177 144 191 151 199 177 180 203 168 207 166 219 151 219 149 229 167 226 168...
| Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
|
| CTHAR | 203 203 is the North American telephone area code that covers the southwestern part of Connecticut. The area code stretches from its western border, along its southern coast, to beyond the city of New Haven, and ends just south of Hartford...
| Hartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts. Its 2006 population of 124,512 ranks Hartford as the state's second-largest city, after Bridgeport. New...
|
| FLMIA | 305Area code 305 was the single original area code for the entire state of Florida, and still currently serves all of Miami-Dade County and the part of Monroe County that is in the Florida Keys...
| Miami, Florida Miami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 424,662 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the...
|
| GAATL | 404 Area code 404 covers Atlanta and its immediate neighbors, roughly within Interstate 285.Originally, it covered all of Georgia when the area code system was first created in the 1940s and implemented in 1951. On July 1, 1954, area code 912 was assigned to southern and middle Georgia...
| Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
|
| ILCHI | 312 Area code 312 encompasses the Chicago Loop and surrounding areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is roughly bounded by North Avenue on the north, Ashland Avenue on the west, Lake Michigan on the east, and 31st Street on the south...
, 815 | Chicago, Illinois |
| MABOS | 617 Area codes 617 and 857 are area codes covering the Boston Metro area of Massachusetts.-History:Area code 617 once covered the entire eastern half of Massachusetts, and was coextensive with the Eastern Massachusetts LATA #128. It now covers only the city of Boston and some immediate suburbs...
| Boston, Massachusetts |
| MIDET | 313 Area code 313 is the telephone area code serving the city of Detroit, and some of the city's innermost enclave cities , including Dearborn, Redford and Grosse Pointe...
| Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
|
| MNMIN | 612 Area code 612 is the telephone numbering plan code for the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota and a few surrounding areas such as Fort Snelling, St. Anthony and Richfield, Minnesota. It is currently the smallest area code in the state by land area. However, the region used to be much larger,...
| Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities,...
|
| NCRTP | 919 Area code 919 is a telephone area code serving all or parts of 11 counties in the north-central area of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It serves the primary cities of Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill, and the surrounding suburban areas of the Research Triangle Metropolitan Region, as well...
| Research Triangle Park, North Carolina |
| NJNEW | 201 201 is the North American telephone area code for the state of New Jersey covering most of Hudson and Bergen counties, as well as parts of Essex and Passaic. It is overlaid with area code 551....
| Newark, New JerseyBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
|
| NYNYO | 212 212 is a North American telephone area code in New York City. By area, it is one of the smallest area codes in North America.New York City was originally given area code 212 when area codes were assigned in 1947, because it is the fastest area code that could be dialed with a rotary dial given the...
, 718Area code 718 is a New York City telephone area code for the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, the four out of five boroughs of New York City, as well as the Marble Hill section of Manhattan....
| New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
|
| OHCLV | 216 216 is the North American telephone area code for the Cleveland area of the state of Ohio.It was one of the original area codes issued in the North American Numbering Plan on January 1, 1947...
| Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
|
| ORPOR | 503 | Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
|
| PAPHI | 215 | Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
|
| TXDAL | 214, 817 | Dallas, TexasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
|
| TXHOU | 713 | Houston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...
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| WIMIL | 414 North American telephone area code 414 is a state of Wisconsin area code which was created along with Area code 715 as one of the two original area codes assigned to Wisconsin in October 1947...
| Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and 23rd largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Its estimated 2008 population was 604,477. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the...
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