Date   : Thu, 05 Sep 1985 14:19:00 GMT
From   : callen%ada-uts.uucp@BRL.ARPA
Subject: Re: Bitnet and Arpanet

>Hal - Bitnet is a service of EDUCOM.  Bitnet, CSNET and one or two others
>are all services of EDUCOM.  If I remember correctly, all of the EDUCOM

Huh? I used to be at a BITNET site (U of Chicago), and BITNET is pretty
much a home-rolled network based on IBM's NJE (Network Job Entry)
protocol, which VM/370 supports with a product called RSCS. Administration
is out of (I think) Columbia. Each site supplies a 9600 baud dedicated
to the nearest node already on the network and in turn agrees to allow
at least one other site to link to them. It is, in fact, a store and
forward system.You can, however, shuttle interactive commands around
the network, so TSO and CMS users can interactively talk to each other
(though it can be S L O W . . .).

There are at least 500 sites on BITNET, I think more. It is limited to
educational institutions. The name Ira Fuchs comes to me as the network
originator and administrator.