@cascheranno @Lightfighter @Janeishly By Internet I mean the network that uses the Internet Protocol Suite and grew out of ARPANET.

There were a few rival global networks in the 1980s, including the Internet, UUCPNET (which used bangpaths etc.), FidoNet and BITNET.

The World Wide Web was the killer application that made the Internet much more popular than its rivals, most of which have died out. (Checked just now and happy that FidoNet still exists, but traffic on it is tiny compared to the Internet and compared to what it used to be.)