International Packet Switched Service

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The International Packet Switched Service (IPSS) was created in 1978 by a collaboration between the UK's General Post Office, Western Union International, and Tymnet. This network grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981, and by the 1990s it provided a worldwide networking infrastructure.

Companies and individual users could connect in to the network, via a PSS (Packet Switch Stream) modem, or an X.25 PAD (Packet Assembler/Disassembler), and a dedicated PSS line, and use it to connect to a variety of online databases and mainframe systems. There was a choice of about three different speeds of PSS lines; the faster the line the more expensive it cost to rent it.