[ih] History of Tier 1 Networks

[Leonard Kleinrock]

Yes indeed, Sandy Fraser’s work at Bell Labs was ground-breaking in data networking.  Kudo’s to him.
Len

> On Apr 27, 2026, at 6:13 AM, Anthony Martin <ality at pbrane.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