And here, friends, is the same list of networks I provided earlier in the table of contents for my forthcoming Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook but listed chronologically. Of course the list is impossibly incomplete but it still reveals some interesting lulls and surges of network activity. Also note that I have posted a chronological list of experiments on/with these networks here.

*

unknown: Drums [1]
unknown: Whistling [2]
3000 B.C.E.: Necromancy [53]
2600 B.C.E.: Library [42]
2100-2000 B.C.E.: Book [43]
1570 B.C.E.: Postal System [44]
400 B.C.E.: Hydraulic Semaphore [6]
300 B.C.E.: Fire or Smoke Signals [3]
50-40 B.C.E.: Pigeon Post [44.1]
1337: Flag Signaling [7]
1475: Projectile Post [44.2]
1792: Optical Telegraph [8]
1809: Electrical Telegraph [33]
1844: Electrical Printing Telegraph [33.1]
1848: Image Telegraph [33.2]
1850: Pasilalinic-Sympathetic Compass [54]
1851: Fire Alarm Telegraph [33.3]
1853: Pneumatic Tubes [4]
1856-57: Pantelegraph [33.4]
1859: Balloon Mail [44.3]
1860: Pony Express [44.4]
1860: Infrared Communication [9]
1867: Signal Lamp [10]
1869: Heliograph [11]
1876: Telephonic Telegraph [33.5]
1876: Telephone [34]
1878: Telephonoscope [55]
1880: Photophone [12]
1880s: Barbed Wire Telegraph [40]
1881: Wired Radio [35]
1882: Telepathy [56]
1888: Telautograph [36]
1888: Sneakernet [45]
1893: Fence Phones [41]
1895: Amateur Radio [16]
1895: Radiotelegraphy [16.1]
1901: Telefacsimile [37]
1906: Radio Broadcast [17]
1907: Pirate Radio [18]
1908: Radiofax [19]
1921: Ley Lines [57]
1921: Radioteletype [16.2]
1922: Radio Broadcast Network [46]
1922: Skywriting [5]
1923: Amateur Television [16.3]
1926: Ultraviolet Communication [13]
1927: Videophone [38]
1928: Broadcast Television [47]
1929: Hellschreiber [16.4]
1930: Two-Way Radio [20]
1931: Telex [39]
1931: Microwave Radio-Relay [31]
1934: Mundaneum [58]
1938: World Brain [59]
1941: Airgraph and V-Mail [44.5]
1945: Memex [60]
1947: Cable Television [48]
1947: Cellular Network [49]
1947: Faster-Than-Light Communication Network [61]
1949: Pager [21]
1954: Earth-Moon-Earth Communication [16.5]
1954: Meteor Burst Communication [22]
1957: Slow Scan Television [23]
1958: Communications Satellite [32]
1960: Laser Communication [14]
1960: Project Xanadu [62]
1961: Amateur Radio Satellite [16.6]
1961: Time-Sharing Network [50]
1963: Project West Ford [24]
1971: Pirate Television [25]
1971: Packet Radio Network [26]
1973: Teletext [51]
1974: Videotex [52]
1976: Microbroadcast [27]
1978: Amateur Packet Radio [16.7]
1982: Email Letter [44.6]
1982: NABU Network [48.1]
1988: Software Defined Radio [28]
1992: Metaverse [63]
1997: Wi-Fi [29]
1997: Bluetooth [30]
1999: The Clacks [64]
2009: Pandoran Neural Network [65]
2020: Cosmic Internet [66]