Exactly 30 years ago, on February 13th, 1992, the Czech Technical University in Prague hosted a momentous event.
At a meeting with university computer science experts and representatives from the University of Linz, the RIPE network coordination centre, and the US National Science Foundation, Czechoslovakia was officially connected to the internet.
In the Czech Republic, according to the Statistical Office, 83 percent of households are connected to the internet, and over six million people use the mobile internet.
The .cz register of national domains, managed by CZ.NIC, contains approximately 1.4 million items.
Former Czechoslovakia became the 39th connected country in February 1992.
The first connection had a speed of 19.2 kilobits per second and led to the EARN node network at the University of Linz in Austria.
The first connected device was an IBM 4341 mainframe computer, which weighed several tons and took up practically a whole room at the Regional Computing Centre of universities in Prague.
For one year only people in Prague and on the premises of the Czech Technical University were able to connect. After that, it was built a CESNET network in 1992 or 1993 that connected universities only.
The connection of ordinary people started with the dial-up modem in 1994 or 1995 but it took almost one year to get a license to charge people for the use of the internet.
