from History of Email
Intro — Email in Australia
Before NBN there was AUSTPAC 1982 - 2008 Telstra's X.25 packet-switching data network. Launches Viatel in 1985,
In 1971 the US ARPAnet (the early Internet) connects the first universities and colleges by email. Simpler addressing 
. Note, the ARPAnet was funded and controlled by US Department of Defense, and until 1988 - 1990 the Internet was unavailable for commercial development.
In Australia in 1989, Melbourne University connected by satellite to the Internet via University of Hawaii. Telstra took over in 1995 opening
Bigpond was followed by OptusNet in 1998. Microsoft Windows with Outlook or Outlook Express was being installed on PCs worldwide, alongside Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Then Google Search arrived. Note in 2026 neither Telstra (since 2020) nor Optus (since 2023) offer new email accounts.
Go to IBM, DEC and Internet, ITU and Viatel, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Blackberry, GMail, iCloud
SNDMSG was a local inter-user mail program developed by Ray Tomlinson at BBN in Massachusetts, incorporating a file transfer program, CPYNET, to carry networked electronic mail on IBM and DEC computers over the ARPAnet to universities in California in the west and Massachusetts in the east, 8-bit address via 64 IMPs (routers), 4 hosts each. Click here for the Internet's timeline. The addresses contained the '@' character as a separator between local part and host. Managed by Jon Postel (1943-1998) at UCLA (University California Los Angeles). Moved in 1977 to USC (University Southern California) Los Angeles. Now a 24-bit address for 65,000 IMPs, 256 hosts.
In 1983, sendmail program launched. Now a 32-bit IP address with the ARPAnet one of 256 networks. Via SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocols) it standardised transmission from sender (Mail User Agent or MUA) via Mail Transport Agent(s) or MTAs, to Mail Delivery Agent or MDA. In 1984 POP (Post Office Protocols) published for retrieving emails. In 1986 IMAP protocols for retaining emails on a centralized server.
Click here for further background. In 1985 UCL London became a gateway to JANET (UK's Joint Academic Network) see 1980s email.
Larry Breed at STSC in Maryland launched APL Mailbox using APL (A programming language) designed on IBM System/360.
UC Berkeley Network in California releases the Mail client for Unix, written by Kurt Shoens on the DEC PDP-11 computer. Now distributed with the second "Berkeley Software Distribution" (BSD) to educational institutions nationwide (and worldwide). It included support for aliases and distribution lists, forwarding, formatting messages, and accessing different mailboxes.
Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) becomes a public dial-up BBS for home-built computers. Runs on the Intel 8080 CPU using the CP/M operating system.
Back to 1981. IBM PROFS, the predecessor of OfficeVision/VM, is released incorporating a centralised virtual machine to manage all mail transfers.
BITNET (Because It's There Network) launches at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Yale University, providing electronic mail services for educational institutions, based on IBM's VNET email system.
Digital Equipment Corporation launches ALL-IN-1, an office automation system including functionality in electronic messaging.
It became in 1989 the first commercial public email service to cut across to the Internet. See 1988 paragraph.
FidoNet was released, creating a network of connected email-accepting and forwarding bulletin boards for home computers worldwide. IBM PCs running DOS could link with FidoNet for both email and shared bulletin board posting.
AOL By 1993 the large network service providers America Online (AOL) and Delphi were connecting their proprietary email systems for PCs and home computers to the Internet. Thus began the large scale adoption of Internet email as the global standard.
Click here for stats 1988 to 1996
Microsoft Mail was a LAN server capable of supporting 10 (or so) PCs and Macintosh, using an API known generally as MAPI, loosely based on the X.400 standard. Also both on Windows and IBM's OS/2, it could talk to any mail server by replacing MAPI's DLL (Dynamic Link Library) with a fully compliant DLL for the appropriate system.
Connections to "foreign mail systems" were thus made possible by gateways. Microsoft Mail shipped these gateways eg Internet SMTP known as Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP, PROFS and SNADS as employed on IBM's Office Vision, X.400 by the ITU's MHS (Message Handling System - the original blueprint) in Geneva, Novell's MHS - more bare-metal, MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, and others.
In August 1995 Microsoft Exchange client using a PST file Personal Storage Table launching in Windows 95, supports dial-up Internet email with access to msn.com for the cost of a local call through an arrangement with Telstra. Has a "Universal Inbox", Outbox and Sent Items built on MAPI, able to store Faxes, Internet email, MS Mail, and Compuserve email.
Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 launched in March 1996, bundled with an extended MAPI Exchange Client. As Windows 95 Exchange had no support for this Exchange Server, it was now renamed to Windows Messaging to avoid confusion. Included with Windows 95 OSR2 in August 1996, then Windows 98, and Windows NT 4, before being discontinued.
Microsoft Outlook first release January 1997 using MAPI. In May, Exchange Server 5.0 supported Internet protocols POP3 and IMAP4, also X.400, in fact supporting X.400 till 2007. With Exchange Server 5.5 in November its Exchange Client is removed, and Outlook becomes the only client. On the Macintosh, MS Entourage launched in 2000, changing to Outlook in 2010.
Outlook Express with its executable file msimn.exe, was initially called Internet Mail and News, launching April 1996. It handled only plain text and rich text (RTF) email, lacking HTML email. Then updated and renamed Outlook Express in October 1997 and bundled with
On PCs, it was supported by Windows XP, but not Vista in 2006 nor Windows 7 in 2009. Still, Windows XP's popularity meant it lasted for many years.
Hotmail webmail service launched, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, one of the first Webmail services on the Internet along with Four11's RocketMail (later Yahoo! Mail). Hotmail was commercially launched on July 4, 1996, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based email and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world.
The limit for free storage was 2 MB. Hotmail was initially backed by venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. By December 1997, it reported more than 8½ million subscribers. Hotmail initially ran under the Solaris operating system for mail services and Apache web server software under FreeBSD Unix for web services, before being partly converted to Microsoft's products, using Windows Services for UNIX in the migration path.
Hotmail was sold to Microsoft in December 1997 for a reported $400 million, and it joined the MSN group of services. Hotmail quickly rose in popularity as it was localized for different markets around the globe, and became the world's largest webmail service, with more than 30 million active members reported in February 1999. It continued to run on a mixture of FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems.
In 2013 Hotmail became Outlook.com
Meanwhile, Windows Mail launched in September 2005, lasting 18 years.
Windows Live Mail with its extra features was installed by many users, launched 6 November 2007, and lasting till 10 January 2017.
Microsoft Outlook continued as part of Microsoft Office. On September 21, 2023 it was renamed Classic Outlook with the launch of New Outlook, a free version but fewer options.
Yahoo
Yahoo Mail also launched in 1997 as alternative to Hotmail.
From 2005-2019 Yahoo invested in Alibaba network in China. In 2017 bought by Verizon, in 2021 Apollo Global Management
Mozilla Thunderbird was also launched in 2004, a free and open-source email client that ran on the desktop.
Apple standardized its Apple Mail app in 2001 on the Mac, Apple's alternative to Outlook Express. The iPhone launched in 2007, MobileMe's subscription-based email service with Email Push tokens in 2008. In October 2011 the Apple iCloud service launched (free up to 5gb) integrating Mail Calendar and Contacts, also adding automatic backups, photo and music syncing and file storage. MobileMe shut down in June 2012, while specialist apps (GMail in Nov 2011 Yahoo Dec 2012) fix intermittent "push" errors.
Lastly, Australia universities early Internet.
Batch Dialup ACSnet in 1982, with AARNET as permanent route from 1989. Simple, text-based.
Also X.400, supported by Microsoft. In 1990 two Australian domains otc.au and telememo.au set up as gateways to the X.400 mail service at OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Commission). Closed 1999.
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