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

[Louis Mamakos]

On Aug 13, 2009, at 5:46 PM, Johnny RYAN wrote:

> 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

It was enabling innovation, not just competition for the services
that AT&T would let you buy from them.

In my experience at that time, you didn't buy modems from AT&T (or
your local operating company).  Much like the 2500 set on your desk,
you got to lease it on a monthly basis rather than an outright
capital purchase.  At the the time, I was working at the Computer
Center at the University of Maryland, and we had this large rack
with perhaps 12 or 20 modems within that volume.  (As Randy
pointed out, this was a good density match for quite a while
given the size of the communication controllers on the mainframe
computers we had for some time.)  You got to choose from whatever
AT&T thought that you needed, and that's about it.

The CPE was the same sort of thing; you got to lease a Bell 113A
DATA-phone, with advanced features like RS-232 AND 20mA current
loop interfaces!  TALK and DATA buttons.  Woo!

Once third parties started building modems for sale, there were now
real commercial pressure to produce products that customers actually
wanted, higher densities, lower cost of purchase, etc.  It wasn't
Western Electric that built modems with "AT" commands for "easy"
in-band dialing and control; it was another company that had a
different idea that the market responded to.

Curiously, once these other commercial ventures starting building
products, AT&T/Bell Labs/Western Electric with years of experience
and head start in that market never really was able to field
competitive products into the marketplace.  Perhaps this comes
from years of never really having to compete for the business
and SELL these products, vs. allowing the customer to place an
order for them, like it or not.

Louis Mamakos