BITNET

Abbreviation for Because It's Time NETwork. An early (ca. 1981) store-and-forward digital communications network interconnecting universities and research institutions worldwide. Note: BITNET, which is now obsolete, had a purpose akin to that of the present Internet, but was not nearly so robust, and at a speed of only 9600 b/s, it could not support the data rates presently attainable via the Internet.