Happy Birthday !
Very soon it will be the 30th birthday of the Internet in Monaco.
I am sure you thought that Monaco Internet Access and the first Data Center would be started by Monaco Telecom or at least France Telecom. Well no. It was actually started in 1994 by me, Steve Gale at GALE FORCE Computing, a Monaco based IT services company and software developer on Avenue St Michel near the Millefiori.
1994
On 21st November 1994 I received confirmation that my application for a direct link to the internet had been approved. My agreed domain was monaco.mc. This started the long process to activate the .mc country code globally as I was the first ever request from Monaco.
The .mc Internet begins
The changes to the internet domain system were completed on 19th January 1995 and monaco.mc was live.
A few days later I opened several phone lines for local clients so they could dial-in and access the World Wide Web. Monaco was Online! I began selling exclusive @monaco.mc email addresses and hosting the first ever Monaco websites.
Soon I had many local clients including the Monaco Centre de Presse, the Monaco Tourist Office, the Princesse Grace Library, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Monaco TV festival and all the big hotels.
In those early years my Monaco websites were featured in many media outlets including UK TV’s Sky News, the Financial Times and the local Nice Matin newspaper.
And then
For many years I was the main provider of Internet access and popup cyber cafes for many local conferences in Monaco, Nice and Cannes.
In 1997, with the Monaco Centre de Presse I built and hosted the official website for the 700 years of Grimaldi anniversary.
In 2006 I sold the monaco.mc domain name to Monaco Telecom.
In 2014 I sold my IT services company to pursue other interests.
Some links to the past
For the full story of “starting the internet in Monaco” see my post: https://blog.stevegale.com/2020/09/how-i-started-internet-in-monaco/
I have found a partial copy of my Monaco Online website from 4th January 1997 in the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/19970104055346/http://www.monaco.mc/