Internet Technology Turns 30 Years

The Internet, a revolutionary and cheap communications system that has transformed the lives of billions of people across the world, turned 30 on Tuesday. The computer network officially began its technological revolution when it fully substituted previous networking systems on January 1 1983.

Known as “flag day”, it was the first time the US Department of Defence (DoD)-commissioned Arpanet network fully switched to use of the Internet protocol suite (IPS) communications system. Using data “packet-switching”, the new method of linking computers paved the way for the arrival of the World Wide Web.

“I don’t think that anybody making that switch on the day would have realised the importance of what they were doing,” British newspaper Daily Telegraph quoted Chris Edwards, an electronics correspondent for Engineering and Technology magazine, as saying.