bzs> When we, The World, first began allowing the general public onto bzs> the internet in October 1989 we actually had a (mildly shared*) T1 bzs> (1.544mbps) UUNET link. So not so bad for the time. Dial-up bzs> customers shared a handful of 2400bps modems, we still have them.
The World was also our (UUNET) Boston hub. And at that time, cross-country core backbone links were T1. We all thought the NSF T3 backbone was a government boon-doggle. :)