 During the 1990s, the so-called national networks for science, research and education were established in the majority of European countries, the aim of which was to serve the specific needs of scientific and academic communities.The beginning of academic networks in the Czech Republic dates back to 1991, when a mainframe computer was installed in the computing centre of the Czech Technical University, which was then connected to the EARN (European Academic Research Network) academic network.The transfer speed was 9.6 kbit/s, and it was the first opportunity to access the global network infrastructure from the country.