[ih] History of Tier 1 Networks

[Vint Cerf]

Was Sandy's network called Spidernet or something like that?

v


On Mon, Apr 27, 2026 at 9:14 AM Anthony Martin via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> John Day via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> once
> said:
> >> I would agree. In the US, AT&T showed little interest in packet
> >> switching until very late in the game.
>
> Leonard Kleinrock via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
> once said:
> > Early on, AT&T argued that packet switching would not work, and
> > even if it did, they wanted nothing to do with it (notwithstanding
> > the fact that their scientists did do some worthwhile mathematical
> > modeling of it).
>
> That isn't the whole story.
>
> Sandy Fraser's work on packet switching at AT&T Bell Labs is notable.
> Spider started in the early 70s. This led to Datakit in the early 80s
> and commercialized by AT&T. It was still in use up to the early 2010s
> supported by Datatek Corp. Many of Fraser's papers have at least one
> reference to a Kleinrock paper.
>
> Cheers,
>   Anthony
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