[ih] AT&T, carterfone, the 103, and why didnt BBSs start earlier?

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Johnny RYAN <johnnyryan1 at gmail.com>

    > What I'm curious about is a more abstract point - on the modem side
    > rather than the computer side, why is Carterfone decision such a big
    > deal if modems were already available for use on the normal phone line?
    > Was it, as Vint says, price?

Two things: price, and technological innovation.

As long as Western Electric was the only company allowed to build things to
connect up to the PSTN, technological evolution was fairly glacial in pace.

(If you've never used a 300bps modem, you _cannot_ imagine how big a deal the
higher speeds, starting with 1200 bps, are! :-)

Same thing happened with long-distance: once MCI et al were allowed into the
game, it wasn't just price that fell like a rock, we got other innovations
too (e.g. high-speed digital services).

	Noel