V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

BITNET
       Because It's Time NETwork (network)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

BITNET

    /bit'net/ (Because It's Time NETwork) An academic
   and research computer network connecting approximately 2500
   computers.  BITNET provides interactive, electronic mail and
   file transfer services, using a store and forward
   protocol, based on IBM Network Job Entry protocols.

   Bitnet-II encapsulates the Bitnet protocol within IP
   packets and depends on the Internet to route them.  BITNET
   traffic and Internet traffic are exchanged via several
   gateway hosts.

   BITNET is now operated by CREN.

   BITNET is everybody's least favourite piece of the network.
   The BITNET hosts are a collection of IBM dinosaurs,
   VAXen (with lobotomised communications hardware), and Prime
   Computer supermini computers.  They communicate using
   80-character EBCDIC card images (see eighty-column mind);
   thus, they tend to mangle the headers and text of
   third-party traffic from the rest of the ASCII/RFC 822
   world with annoying regularity.  BITNET is also notorious as
   the apparent home of BIFF.

   [Jargon File]

   (2002-09-02)