BITNET was the academic network whose first link joined the City University of New York and Yale in 1981.
The network was founded by Ira Fuchs at CUNY and Greydon Freeman at Yale. Its name originally meant “Because It’s There Network,” although it later acquired the expansion “Because It’s Time Network.” BITNET used leased telephone circuits and store-and-forward techniques rather than the packet-switched architecture associated with today’s Internet.
BITNET helped universities exchange electronic mail, files, and interactive messages. LISTSERV mailing-list software became one of its most influential services, making the network an important early home for academic discussion communities. It eventually spread beyond the United States through related networks such as EARN in Europe and NetNorth in Canada.
A common mix-up is confusing BITNET with NSFNET. NSFNET was a later National Science Foundation backbone that helped commercialize and expand Internet connectivity, while BITNET began as a university network linking two campuses. BITNET’s use declined during the 1990s as TCP/IP networks became dominant.