In 1991, Chilean universities proposed a network that would connect them to the Internet. The costs of this network, called REUNA, would be paid by its members and their potential clients. However, most of the university negotiators had little exposure to international networks and no experience of sharing such resources. Smaller universities were afraid they would be subsidizing the large, and the large felt they deserved more resources. They agreed to use a volume-based pricing system, but could not agree on the particulars.

Three universities decided to create their own Internet connected network, called Unired. These two networks were established in January 1992 and within sixteen months ten universities had joined REUNA and six further sites had connected to Unired. The sad result of this split is that the two Chilean national networks are not directly interconnected and any traffic between them must travel through the U.S. backbone.

When more sites connected it was proposed hat a charge per megabyte on inbound and outbound traffic would fund the international link. Following opposition from users, the volume charges now take the form of coarse charging brackets with discount for off peak traffic.

While the catalyst for the split from REUNA may have been disagreement over cost sharing rules, it cannot have been disagreement over the concept of volume charging itself: the initial charging policies of the rival networks were both based on volume charging. The split seems to have had more to do with the competitive relationship between Chile's largest universities. The University of Chile dominated early networking in Chile and this influence continued in the development of REUNA. Unired, however, is dominated by the Catholic University. University politics, and not pricing philosophies, seem to have caused the split between REUNA and Unired.