Dialcom

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Dialcom Inc. was a US corporation which developed the world's first commercial electronic mail service. It was founded in 1970 by Robert F. Ryan and was sold to ITT Corporation in 1982, becoming ITT Dialcom. Dialcom's e-mail software ran on Prime minicomputers and was licensed to governmental telecommunications providers in over seventeen countries. Various extra features could be offered by Dialcom-based services, including gateways to telex and fax, and online information retrieval services. In 1986, British Telecom, who used Dialcom software for its Telecom Gold service, bought Dialcom from ITT.

[edit] Dialcom systems

Each Dialcom system was allocated a two-digit identification number. This was used as a prefix for the Dialcom e-mail addresses (or "mailboxes"), thus allowing e-mail to be exchanged between difference Dialcom services. By 1990, the following Dialcom systems were operating:

Country	Service	Systems
Australia	Minerva/Keylink	07, 08, 09
Canada	Infotex	20-24
Denmark	Databoks	71
Finland	Telebox	62
Germany	Telebox	15, 16
Hong Kong	Dialcom	88, 89
Ireland	Eirmail	74
Israel	Goldnet	05, 06
Italy	Mastermail	65-68
Japan	KDMINC	13, 14
South Korea	Dialcom	52
Malta	Telecom Gold	75
Mexico	Telepro	52
Netherlands	Memocom	27-29, 55
New Zealand	Starnet	01, 02
Puerto Rico	Dialcom	25
Singapore	Telebox	10-12
Taiwan	Dialcom	52
United Kingdom	Telecom Gold	01, 04, 17, 80-89
United States	Dialcom	29-34, 37, 38, 41-59, 61-63, 90-99

[edit] References

• ZoomInfo: Robert F. Ryan
• BT Connected Earth history of e-mail
• Cornwall, Hugo (1988). The Hacker's Handbook III, revised edition, Century Hutchinson. ISBN 0-7126-1147-9
• Clark, Tim (1990). Hints for Getting Mail through Various Gateways to and from JANET, issue 7, University of Warwick.