Information About

Uunet




UUNET is one of the oldest and largest Internet Service Providers .

Prior to its founding, access to Usenet and E-mail exchange from non- ARPANET sites was accomplished using a cooperative network of systems running the UUCP Protocol over POTS lines. During the mid- 1980s , growth of this network began to put considerable strain on the resources voluntarily provided by the larger UUCP Hub s. This prompted Rick Adams , a system administrator at the Center for Seismic Studies, to explore the possibilities of providing these services commercially as a way to reduce the burden on the existing hubs.

With funding in the form of a loan from Usenix , UUNET Communications Services began operation in 1987 as a non-profit corporation providing Usenet feeds, E-mail exchange and access to a large repository of software source code and related information. The venture proved successful and shed its non-profit status within two years. At the same time, the company changed its name to UUNET Technologies. In 1990 , UUNET launched its AlterNet service, which provided access to an IP backbone independent of the constraints of those operated by the government. That network lives on in a much larger form and serves as the core of a set of products which include access at Dial-up and Broadband speeds as well as Web Hosting .

Today, UUNET is a brand of , Spamhaus listed 236 known spam sources under the responsibility of mci.com.


TIMELINE

  • 1987 - UUNET Communications Services is founded and passes its first traffic

  • 1989 - UUNET becomes a for-profit corporation

  • 1990 - UUNET launches AlterNet

  • 1991 - UUNET participates in the founding of the Commercial Internet Exchange Association

  • 1995 - The company sells stock on the NASDAQ stock market in an Initial Public Offering that would become part of the beginning of the Dot-com Boom .

  • 1996 - Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) acquires UUNET

  • 1997 - WorldCom acquires MFS

  • 2000 - The UUNET brand is folded into WorldCom 's product line and disappears

  • 2003 - The UUNET brand re-emerges as WorldCom 's wholesale-only brand

  • 2004 - WorldCom renames itself to MCI , still using the UUNET brand for wholesale business.

  • 2005 - MCI again drops the UUNET brand for wholesale business. The name is no longer in use to this date.

  • 2006 - Verizon acquires MCI, including its UUNET subsidiary.



EXTERNAL LINKS