CGNET Services International

CGNET Services International, based in Menlo Park, California, is an example of an early pioneer in the field of international data communications. Beginning with landmark achievements the 1980s and 1990s CGNET has come to be one of the world’s most well-known email providers in the international nonprofit community. Founded in 1983 by Georg Lindsey, CGNET built some of the earliest international email networks, providing custom email services over the Dialcom network in 1984 and later moving to the Internet.

Prior to the Internet, organizations usually sent mail over private data networks. While individuals could use email services on some value-added carriers, they had not been configured to serve organizations. CGNET changed this when it set up organizational communications over Dialcom.^[1] In the 1990s, it performed a similar feat by providing its customers with an early version of Voice over IP, which did not use the VoIP protocols, but made it possible to transmit voice over IP networks using statistical multiplexing.

CGNET's first client was the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), from which CGNET derived its name. Since then, virtually all of its customers are reported to be nonprofits, foundations or non-governmental organizations.^[2] CGNET's international experience includes several times when it has relocated clients' facilities or rerouted their email because their offices have been caught in the middle of armed rebellions or similar disorders.^[3]

Notes

1. Lindsey, G., Novak, K., Ozgediz, S., and Balson, D.: "The CGNET Story: A Case Study of International Computer Networking," pp. 12-22. International Development Research Centre, 1994.
2. Cassidy, M.:"Mike Cassidy: When angels have technical problems, CGNET is there," San Jose Mercury News, April 29, 2003.
3. Strom, David, "Networking Nonprofits For A Profit," VARBusiness, May 30, 2003.