ABSTRACT
Since the early 1970s the ARPANET and the Internet had included sites outside the United States; University College London had an ARPANET connection for research purposes, and ARPA's Satellite Network linked the United States with a seismic monitoring center in Norway. The defense portion of the Internet also connected many overseas military bases. Before privatization, therefore, it was difficult to expand the Internet abroad by adding host sites to the US-run networks; connecting the Internet to networks in other countries was much more promising. By the mid 1970s, state-run networks were being built in a number of countries, including Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Networks outside the United States had few links to the Internet while it was under military control. But when the National Science Foundation set up its civilian NSFNET, foreign networks were able to establish connections to it, and thus to gain access to the rest of the Internet.
