In June 1984, I upgraded my home IBM-PC to have two half-height floppy disk drives, a 10 Mb hard disk drive, and a modem. It went online as Australia's first IBM-PC-based Bulletin Board System (BBS) in July 1984, called PC Connection Australia BBS.
In 1989, with the support of MicroHelp Computers & Communications, the PC Connection Australia BBS was upgraded to become Australia's first proper multi-user BBS system.
By late 1990, PC Connection Australia BBS had twelve NetComm SmartModem 9600 baud (1.2 KB) modems available to the public. Two NetComm/Telebit TrailBlazer modems capable of 18,000 baud (2.25 KB) throughput were used to exchange mail, newsgroups and public domain software with other systems around the world.
At its peak, PC Connection Australia BBS had more than 2,500 subscribers who paid 50 cents per hour to access the system. The services available to the users included:
- Electronic Mail,
- Teleconferencing,
- Forums,
- File Libraries,
- Shopping Mall,
- Polls and Questionnaires,
- Plus several Multi-user Online Games.
The shopping mall was one of the first online shops in Australia.
For more. Please see PC Connection Australia BBS.