[ih] Bell System packet networks

[John Gilmore]

Leonard Kleinrock wrote:
> Finally, in 1983 (14 years after the launch of the Arpanet that
> demonstrated the viability of packet switching), AT&T finally launched
> their premier data networking service called Net 1000! However, it was
> too little too late and worse, it offered it as a full service
> offering that not only provided data transmission, but also offered
> storage and computation to the Fortune 500 companies, two things that
> those companies certainly not need - they closed down Net 1000 in 1984
> at a loss in the range of $1 billion!

How does Frame Relay fit into the picture?

It was from Bell and it moved packets.  But mostly on "permanent virtual
circuits" that were set up once and never changeable.  Wikipedia says it
was a simplified version of X.25, and was deployed in the 1990s.  Our
early ISP, The Little Garden, offered service over 56k Frame Relay in
late 1994, as an alternative to dialups or leased lines.  It had the
advantage of being flat-rate no matter where in the Pacific Bell LATA
the customer was -- anywhere between Monterey and the Oregon border.

	John