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

[Johnny RYAN]

Noel,

So if I understand you correctly, it was competition that was the key
- the Carterfone decision, by allowing other devices from various
manufacturers, enabled competition. Very helpful - thank you!

Johnny


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On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 10:36 PM, Noel Chiappa<jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
>    > 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
>