Timeline milestone
The Internet backbone shifts toward commercial service
From How the Internet Was Built: From Four Computers to a Global Network
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Commercialisation
The Internet backbone shifts toward commercial service
NSF retired NSFNET’s backbone as commercial providers took over general connectivity in the United States.
Often described as the birth of the commercial Internet, the transition more precisely removed a central U.S. research backbone after private networks had matured. It was a major commercial milestone, not a single global privatisation event.
