They started with a network called Arpanet that was sponsored by the United States Department of Defense. This was intended to test methods of making computer networks survive military attack. By dispersing the network over a wide area, and using a web of connections between computers, a system could continue functioning even when portions of it were destroyed, by redirecting communications through the remaining portions of the network. The original Arpanet has long since been expanded and replaced and today its descendants form the global backbone of what we call the Internet. The National Science Foundation helped tremendously with the progression of the Internet when it realized that it could save money by creating several super computer centers connected to a network, so that researchers in major universities for example, could connect to them.
Nobody owns the Internet, just as nobody owns the world's telephone network.
Each component is owned by somebody, but the network as a whole is not owned by one single person or entity. It is a system that is brought together by mutual interest. They decided the country codes, billing for international calls, who pays for the laying of cables and the technical details of connection from country to country. Growing Pains Over the past decade the Internet has grown tremendously with all sorts of organizations becoming involved, each connecting to its own network, with its own particular configuration of hardware and software. Therein lies a problem.