Huh? What planet are you from? What do you mean, "no Internet?"
Back then, real men (like myself, of course) were using the Internet. We just didn't have these sissy-boy applications like Firefox and Ineternet Explorer. Heck, WE WERE INTERNET EXPLORERS! Using "bang lists" to route email and copy files, the "uu* apps," rsh, and best of all, "rn" to read the news groups!
You young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it! We had to hand crank the generators to get the electricity to power the 300 bit per second acousti-couplers that allowed us to communicate over the Internet! lol! Seriously though, I remember how excited I was to get my first $250 2400 baud modem, and didn't need to use my old 300 baud modem any more! We're talkin' "BITS PER SECOND" here... Not giga-bits, or mega-bits, or even kilo-bits... bits!
Mark
Nope.
Back then bps stood for “bauds per second”.