# What was the earliest true commercial dial-up ISP? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-true-commercial-dial-up-isp/734933 "2015-10-17T20:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-true-commercial-dial-up-isp/734933/21 "2015-10-21T01:49:13Z")
Wikipedia states Netcom started in 1988. I’ve had a hard time finding details of exactly what exactly they were selling at that point–when I joined in the early 90s it was a dialup unix shell account with internet access, I assume it was the same when it started, but I’m not sure of that. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-true-commercial-dial-up-isp/734933/22 "2015-10-21T05:32:27Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > Wikipedia states Netcom started in 1988. I’ve had a hard time finding details of exactly what exactly they were selling at that point–when I joined in the early 90s it was a dialup unix shell account with internet access, I assume it was the same when it started, but I’m not sure of that. I would imagine they sold TCP/IP, but probably only to government approved people. Though by 1989 from what I understand the NSF was being more liberal about who got to go on, definitely by 1990. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-true-commercial-dial-up-isp/734933/23 "2015-10-21T14:06:05Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > I guess it is The World after all. Their history is confusing, but doing the research, unless Barry Shein their founder is mistaken they indeed were selling dial-up in 1989. We bought dial-up access to a shell account in 1989, from Barry. It was 1200 baud, but we had a modem with an early type of 9600 and he hooked one of those up to a line for us. We had to call long distance from Kansas City to Boston. I don’t remember exactly, but we had access to a full shell, and could run various Usenet and mail programs like Elm or Pine. I have a box with the stuff from that era, but it’s all on Amiga 1000 3.5" floppy disks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-true-commercial-dial-up-isp/734933.md?page=1)