Originally published in the August 1995 issue of Internet World
On May 13, the US government officially dismantled the NSFnet, the Internet backbone running from New York to San Francisco, and turned Internet provision over to commercial vendors.
Large companies like Alternet, ANS, MCI, and Sprint have eagerly stepped in to supply Internet connectivity.
The NSFnet backbone was created in 1986. Originally a 56-Kbps line, it was upgraded to T1 (1.54Mbps) in 1990 and T3 (44.74 Mbps) in 1992.
No serious problems were encountered as the historic NSFnet switch was pulled.