The history of the Internet has changed a lot in all these years. At the end of the 20th century the tables changed forever, since it was the takeoff of the network in our society. Access became popular in homes worldwide and Telefónica knew how to take advantage of that opportunity. and from there it was born InfoVíaa service that barely cost 139 pesetas an hour during the day, what they are now about 83 cents.
The Spanish operator went all out and launched InfoVía in September 1995. This red paralela a Internet during its first three years of operation, Spain was ahead of Italy and France in terms of Internet penetration. And it was not for less, users had to pay about 139 pesetas per hour during the day and 106 pesetas at night per hour of use. In this way, the telephone company managed to extend this network service throughout the country.
Internet at the best price
Those first users who were subscribed to InfoVía de Telefónica they barely paid 83 cents an hour for Internet or even less, since the hours at night cost about 63 cents. This made this parallel network service spread throughout Spain in the following years. It must be borne in mind that it did not give Internet access directly, but rather users managed to enter Telefónica’s servers, since they acted as an intermediary.
In any case, by October 1996, they were already 100,000 home users those who had this service, in addition to 200 service providers. Regarding the impact it had, these are the figures it left in its day:
843 information service providers. 000 lines used. Thirty-six million accumulated calls. One million hours of connection.
To use it, every user I needed a modem which cost around 10,000 pesetas, in addition to a specific browser based on Mosaic. In this way, by dialing the number 055 through the device, it was possible to access the services of this network that worked with TCP/IP protocols.
Although, domestic access had a limitation important. When using the line to have Internet, the fixed telephone line was busy. Something that has already changed completely with the arrival ahead of another technological revolution of the time, ADSL.
The evolution of InfoVía
In 1999, this Telefónica network evolved for the better, since it began to provide an Internet service with higher speeds and new equipment. And it was not for less, the Internet market at that time had already changed completely. therefore he was born InfoVía Plus. The operation was similar, although the number 055 was stopped being used.
With the modernization of the InfoVía network, the 56 kbps speeds, that is, the bandwidth that it previously had was doubled. However, everything changed when telephony was released. More than anything, because other operators began to appear in the market with new contracting options. This led to the disappearance of access providers, since the operators already had all the necessary infrastructure for Internet connection.
