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It is 'the Internet' in English.

The article is needed.

However, French drops the article.

It is 'sur Internet' not 'sur l' Internet'.

How do you explain the reason for this feature?

A German told me even they drop the article. In German it is 'auf Internet'-

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there was a big long discussion on just this point (well other points too) about 8 years ago when the word was even newer.

I am behind the times and so was unaware of this subject.

Great George!

This has widely been discussed on that forum.

French, Swedish and German drop the article.

There is another interesting  point.

When it comes to  TV programs, we drop the article.

Generally, programs are transmitted.

We say the program is on BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera etc.  

We do not say the program is on the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera etc. 

( I am not a native English speaker like you.)

However, French needs the article

Il y a un programme à la télévision. 
There's a program  on TV. 

I would personally nearly always say "on the BBC" (or "on BBC television") but you are right for "on CNN" etc.

Almost everyday I listen to BBC.

They never say programs 'on the BBC'.

They say programs 'on BBC'.

To be candid, most of the time I listen to the French channels.

I have 2 French channels.

I mean I subscribe to 2 French channels.

Here, like other countries, you pay for each channel.

If you think about it the BBC would use the phrase "on BBC"  differently to a member of the public  because , in a sense they are talking about themselves.

Even so , I would need to hear the exact phrase (s) you are hearing to make up my mind.

The difference between using "BBC radio" or "BBC radio world service" etc and " the BBC" or "the BBC radio world service" is quite subtle but I can assure you that "on the BBC" is not wrong or uncommon.

In fact when I compare the number of  returns in Google for the phrase "on the BBC world service"  with the returns for "on BBC world service" the former (with quotes) is   only 157,000  whereas the latter (also in quotes)is 3,730,000 -or 20 times greater.

That is just one phrase  as an example but it shows that "on the BBC" is not wrong (as you said).

This is not meant too seriously  but the one thing a native English speaker might be expected to know by heart  is how to refer to the BBC as it is an extremely central part of the culture in the UK  ;) 

ps I have repeated the Google test with "listen to BBC" versus "listen to the BBC"  (both phrases in quotes)and the latter beats the former by a factor of 9 (3,120,000 versus  330,000) ....

'The' is used when the name is deemed not immediately recognizable to, or not expected by the listener:
-- Where did you hear that?
-- I heard it on the BBC.

On the other hand, you drop 'the' if your listener is already alert to the name:
--Which channel do you want?
--Let's tune to BBC.

That explains why CNN always goes without article: it's a name too often mentioned to need an article. That also explains why older Francophones tend to go with L'Internet: to them the term might still be alien to some degree.

So why 'The Internet'? It's because, as someone already pointed out in your link above, English speakers see it not as a name, but a noun: the interconnected network.

well if you put capital i you don't use an article "je me connecte à Internet"   internet is here a proper noun

but officially the internet is a common noun so  you have to put an article in front of "je me connecte à l'internet"

and in fact in France everyone speaks like the internet is a proper noun . "je vais sur Internet - je me connecte à Internet - tu as vus sur Internet"


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