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Web Hosting Timeline |
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Thursday, May 17, 2007
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1910 By the time of unification in 1910, the four South African colonies had developed their own postal, telegraph and telephone services. In order to regulate the various services, parliament promulgates the Post Office Administration and Shipping Combinations Discouragement Act. This act is finally superseded by the Post Office Act.
1947 The Cable and Wireless Workers Transfer Act provides for the acquisition by the government of the assets of a company known as Cable and Wireless of South Africa Limited.
1958 The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is formed by the US government to expand America´s technological frontiers.
1958 The Post Office Act establishes in section 78 what is today known as Telkom´s monopoly.
1961 Leonard Kleinrock, at MIT, publishes the first paper on packet switching theory.
1962 JCR Licklider, of MIT, publishes a paper discussing his "Galactic Network" concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programmes from any site.
1962 ARPA forms the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), which conducts research on command and control systems.
1965 The first wide area computer network is built.
1965 Rhodes University is the first university in South Africa to install a computer, an ICT 1301.
1967 MIT researcher Lawrence G Roberts, intending to realise Licklider´s idea, publishes his plan for the "Arpanet".
1967 Wes Clark comes up with the idea of using dedicated hardware to perform network functions while at a meeting of ARPA principal investigators. The devices would eventually be called Interface Message Processors (IMPs).
1968 The Post Office Re-adjustment Act provides for the administration of the then Department of Posts and Telegraphs on business principles.
1969 The first node is connected to the Arpanet. By the end of that year, four host computers are connected.
1970 The first packet network, AlohaNet, is developed at the University of Hawaii.
1970 The Network Working Group (NWG) finishes the initial Arpanet host-to-host protocol, called the Network Control Protocol (NCP).
1971 Roy Tomlinson writes the first basic e-mail programme.
1972 ARPA becomes DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). It subsequently went back to ARPA on 22 February, 1993, and then back to DARPA again on 11 March, 1996.
1972 Arpanet is publicly demonstrated for the first time at the International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC).
1973 Arpanet makes its first international connection, while Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf team up to develop the details of the protocols that will become TCP/IP.
1973 Bob Metcalfe, at Xerox PARC, develops Ethernet technology.
1973 FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is introduced.
1974 BBN announces "Telenet" the first public packet data service.
1974 Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of a Transmission Control Programme.
1975 Operational management of the Internet is transferred to the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA).
1979 The first MUD (Multi-user domain), MUD1, is developed by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw at the University of Essex.
1979 ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB).
1981 Ted Nelson conceptualises Xanadu, a central, pay-per-document hypertext database encompassing all written information.
1981 An agreement between CSNET, the NSF and DARPA permitted CSNET traffic to share ARPANET infrastructure on a statistical and no-metered-settlements basis.
1982 DCA and ARPA establish the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET.
1983 The Arpanet host protocol changes from NCP to TCP/IP as of 1 January.
1983 The domain name server is developed at the University of Wisconsin, no longer requiring users to know the exact path to other systems.
1984 The introduction of the Domain Name System, or DNS, becomes a standard for computers to be able to differentiate themselves from one another. Six domains are introduced: .edu (Education), .gov (Government), .mil (Military), .com (Commercial), .net (Network Resources), and .org (Organisation).
1985 Symbolics.com becomes the first registered domain name.
1985 The Internet is a well-established technology supporting a wide community of researchers and developers.
1986 Mail Exchanger (MX) records are developed by Craig Partridge to allow non-IP network hosts to have domain addresses.
1987 Apple Computer introduces HyperCard, the first widely available personal hypermedia authoring system. ´
1988 The first Interop tradeshow is held, with only 50 companies making the cut.
1988 The first South African e-mail link to the Internet is established by Rhodes University in Grahamstown.
1989 The first ISPs, including the first dial-up ISP world.std.com, are formed.
1989 The first gateways between private electronic mail carriers and the Internet are established.
1990 Arpanet is decommissioned and McGill University releases the Archie search engine.
1990 The first remotely operated machine to be hooked up to the Internet, the Internet Toaster (controlled via SNMP), makes its debut at Interop.
1991 The Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association is formed after the National Science Foundation (NSF) lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Net.
1991 CERN unleashes the World Wide Web onto the world, incorporating Tim Berner-Lee´s new HTML computer language.
1991 Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), invented by Brewster Kahle, are released by the Thinking Machines Corporation.
1992 The term "surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly.
1992 The Internet Society is formed and the IETF is transferred to operate under it as an independent international standards body.
1993 One of the first graphical Web browsers, Mosaic, is released by Marc Andreessen, at the US National Centre for Supercomputing Applications.
1994 Shopping malls arrive on the Internet.
1995 Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access. Web hosting is established as a service by this time.
1995 Sun Microsystems introduces its HotJava Web browser and the Java programming language, created by Jim Gosling.
1996 The South African Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) is formed in response to Telkom´s formation of SAIX (South African Internet Exchange) and Intekom (a dial-up service provider). Founding members include The Internet Solution, UUNet Internet Africa, Network Information Services, PIX, Global Internet Access and LeClub Internet Access.
1996 Uniforum sets up a peering point with free access to anyone wishing to connect to it. The peering point initially receives some support from ISPs without any international links of its own. Later, the launch of peering points by ISPA and the political tensions between ISPA and Telkom prevent the peering point from growing further.
1996 - ISPA decides to make a submission to the Competition Board because of SAIX´s entry into the Internet services market.
1996 The Telecommunications Act comes into force. It is enacted to make provision for the regulation of telecommunication activities other than broadcasting and to establish an independent South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) and a Universal Service Agency (USA). The Act establishes a number of telecommunication services and regulates them with licensing requirements.
1996 ISPA establishes a peering point in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Telkom´s SAIX network is prohibited from peering; the effect is that customers who feed from the SAIX tree have painfully slow response times for many local sites.
1996 SAIX ISPs Action Group (SIAG) is formed to promote the interests of the ISPs connected to SAIX and to lobby against Telkom´s entry into the Internet services market.
1997 2 000th request for comments - "Internet Official Protocol Standards" from the Internet Architecture Board. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC), starting March 1998.
1997 SATRA is established.
1997 The lack of a SAIX link to a South African peering point again comes under discussion at an ISPA meeting. ISPA decides that any peering with Telkom or SAIX should wait until the Competition Board makes a ruling.
1997 A VANS licence is issued to Telkom dealing, among other things, with Telkom´s right to provide Value Added Network Services, which are defined in the licence to include electronic data interchange, e-mail, protocol conversion, voice mail, video conferencing, telecommunication-related publishing and advertising and electronic information services.
1997 A PSTS licence is issued to Telkom setting certain roll-out and service targets and giving Telkom a five-year monopoly on, among others, all and any telecommunication facilities to be used by any person for the provision of VANS.
1997 SATRA announces in a press statement that the Internet, as a Value Added Network Service, is an area of competition in terms of the Telecommunications Act. It furthermore states that one of the major regulatory challenges in relation to competition policy is to ensure that when markets are opened up, the dominant operator (Telkom) does not leverage its position in one market to achieve dominance in the other.
1997 The Competition Board makes an interim ruling on the dispute between ISPA and Telkom and confirms that ISPA´s concerns are plausible.
1997 According to ISPA, Telkom decides not to provide any new international bandwidth to the ISPA and its members.
1997 A "Blue Paper" is published to provide input to SATRA and the government on regulation as it should apply to the Internet. The paper discusses Telkom´s participation in the Internet market, licensing in the Internet industry and matters relating to voice traffic on the Internet.
1997 In Regulation 1320 of 1997, SATRA announces its intention to make a ruling on whether or not Internet Protocol falls within the exclusive rights vested in Telkom.
1997 SATRA makes a ruling that access to the Internet will be supplied under Value Added Network Service (VANS) licences and that Telkom has no claim to exclusivity with regard to the provision of Internet access. SATRA also rules that a neutral, industry-administered peering point should be established.
1997 - SATRA invites submissions on the regulation and licensing of Value Added Network Services (VANS) and Private Telecommunication Networks (PTN).
1998 The South African Chapter of the Internet Society is officially founded.
1998 - ISPA lifts its peering restrictions on Telkom and Intekom by allowing them membership to ISPA.
1998 The Department of Communications establishes an Information Technology investment cluster to develop coherent legislation on Information Society issues.
1998 ISOC (Internet Society) SA is approved by the Internet Society as the official Chapter of the Internet Society in South Africa.
1999 - ISOC SA elects members of the namespace drafting committee and commences the drafting of namespace policy for the top-level .za domain.
1999 The Films and Publications Act is amended to make specific provision for material obtained through the Internet.
2002 The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act provides for the facilitation and regulation of electronic communications and transactions, the development of a national e-strategy for South Africa, and encourages the use of e-government services.
2002 Telkom´s monopoly ends with the issue of two telecoms licences to state-owned signal distributor Sentech.
2005 The one-billionth Internet user goes online.
2005 VOIP is made legal in South Africa. Value-added network service (VANS) providers are now allowed to carry voice using any protocol.
2005 The Electronic Communications Act promotes convergence in the broadcasting, broadcasting signal distribution and telecommunications sectors and provides the legal framework for convergence of these sectors. It also makes new provision for the regulation of electronic communications services, electronic communications network services and broadcasting services, as well as providing for the granting of new licences and the control of the radio frequency spectrum.
2007 The Electronic Communications Act makes provision for Telkom to allow any operator to interconnect with its SAT 3 infrastructure on a cost basis.
Compiled by Mia Andric. Sources: The History and Development of the Internet: a Timeline, Rhonda Davila. A Brief History of the Internet, Barry M Leiner, Vinton G Cerf, David D Clark, Robert E Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G Roberts, Stephen Wolff. Wikipedia. Keith Lynch´s timeline of Net-related terms and concepts, A Computer Geek´s History of the Internet. Hobbes´ Internet Timeline. South African Internet Timeline. |
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