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2014 Internet Hall of Fame Interviews: Susan Estrada

There was this idea that the Internet” was only for aca­d­e­mics and gov­ern­ment. But we were hav­ing a lot of com­mer­cial cus­tomers come to us and want to be able to use the Internet for con­vers­ing with their peo­ple at uni­ver­si­ties as well as at oth­er com­pa­nies around the US. So, we worked with a cou­ple of firms, PSI and UUNET, and togeth­er the three of us formed some­thing called the Commercial Internet Exchange. And when we did that that was the first time ever that com­mer­cial traf­fic was able to pass through the Internet.

Susan Estrada’s Internet Hall of Fame 2014 Induction Speech

One of our ear­li­est com­mer­cial cus­tomers was a small start­up named Qualcomm. And we made some bold choic­es like pur­chas­ing equip­ment from anoth­er small start­up named Cisco and pro­vid­ed them with a big boost. We were 10% of their gross rev­enue for 1988, and they did­n’t know how to ful­fill our order.