National Science Foundation Network Not to be confused with NFSNET , a distributed computing project . The National Science Foundation Network ( NSFNet ) was a major part of early 1990s Internet backbone . History Following the deployment of the CSNET , a network that linked academic computer science departments , in 1981 , the NSF aimed to create an open network allowing academic researchers access to supercomputers . In 1985 , the NSF began funding the creation of five new supercomputer centers : the John von Neumann Center at Princeton University , the San Diego Supercomputer Center on the campus of the University of California at San Diego , the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , the Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center . The NSFNet connected these five centers and allowed access to their supercomputers over the network at no cost . The NSFNet went online in 1986 , using a TCP/IP -based protocol that was compatible with the military 's ARPANET , as a backbone to which regional and academic networks would connect . It experienced exponential growth in its network traffic . The original 56- kbit/s links were upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s in 1988 and again to 45 Mbit/s in 1991 . Privatization In the early 1990s , commercial organizations connecting to the Internet had to sign a usage agreement directly with NSFNet to gain access to large parts of the public internet , regardless of what Internet Service Provider they purchased Internet access from . From 1987 to 1995 the NSFNET was operated on behalf of the NSF by Merit Network , Inc. , a non-profit corporation governed by public Universities . On April 30 , 1995 , the NSFNET Backbone Service was successfully transitioned to a new architecture , where traffic is exchanged at interconnection points called Network access points . See also Internet World Wide Web ARPANET CSNET External links The Internet - The Launch of NSFNET A Brief History of NSF and the Internet Categories : Wide area networks In other languages : Español | עברית | Nederlands | 日本語 | Русский NFSNET , a distributed computing project 