The Australian Academic and
Research Network (AARNet), connecting all Australian
universities and several research establishments, was originally
established (circa 1990) with a state-level router in each
Australian capital city connecting via leased-line services to the
main AARNet hub router in Melbourne. Another leased-line link ran
from this router to the USA[2]
In this architecture, AARNet retained ownership of all of the
routers, and the involvement of the prime telecommunications
provider (at that time, Telstra) was limited to providing basic
carriage service. Thus, Internet access between universities in
Australia originally followed, to some extent, the cooperative
model.
This architecture has now been replaced by a model whereby an C&W Optus operates as an
Internet Service Provider, connecting
Regional Networks (eg, the VRN in Victoria) in each state to each
other and to the Australian and International Internet.