Exactly 30 years ago, in the Rectorate of the University of Zagreb, the Croatian academic and research computer communication network, based on the Internet protocol and its link to the global Internet network, was officially put into operation, officially starting the Internet era in Croatia.

Croatia’s Internet connection with the world was a connection to the University of Vienna and was established as part of a project to build a national academic network, the Croatian Academic and Research Network CARNET, a press release said on Thursday.

The project was initiated by the then Ministry of Science, Technology and Informatics in October 1991, with the direct support of Branko Jeren, then Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Informatics and later Minister of Science and Rector of the University of Zagreb.

The Committee for the Academic Network was formed in autumn 1991 and it was led by Predrag Pale from the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The goal of the committee was to organise a network to enable every researcher or student to communicate with all researchers in Croatia and the entire world.

The idea of ​​creating a common national computer and communication infrastructure and introducing the Internet in Croatia began to be realised in 1991 at the Zagreb University Computing Center, which set up CARNET.

Along with the construction of a computer and communication network that connected almost all academic institutions in Croatia, in March 1993, the registration and operation of the national top-level Internet domain .hr began.

The first institutions that were included in the national academic and research network and used an international Internet connection were the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Zagreb, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Shipbuilding in Split, the Ruđer Boskovic Institute, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Zagreb Faculty of Science and the Rijeka Faculty of Engineering.

The public computer Srce provided Internet access to all citizens in Croatia.