[ih] How long did it take?

[John Day]

In the 60s, Baran backed out of an offer from AT&T to build a packet switched network because he sensed wisely they didn’t believe in it and would not put the effort into to make it real.

We also all know the story from the ARPANET demo at ICCC72 when Bob Metcalfe was demoing the TIP to several AT&T attendees. The TIP crashed and re-booted from its neighbors. Bob thought this was a great aspect of the system. The AT&T guys thought it showed the ARPANET was a joke and not serious.

So when did AT&T start to take packet switching seriously?

Take care,
John