Internet question

[Nathan Newman]

As I understand it, they asked AT&T to take over the non-military parts of
the Internet back then, which was mostly servicing the university part of
the network- which was probably not that attractive a prize back then.

Actually, AT&T had turned down the Internet once before in the late 1960s
when RAND did a little research on the feasibility of the packet-switching
concept.  Not only did AT&T say the concept was not doable, they refused
to share the technological specifications to check out the feasibility.
Folks at RAND had to purloin copies to test their ideas.

When ARPA set up the Internet, this was one reason why they turned to the
Cambridge, MA-based consulting firm BBN to setup the network.

In AT&T's defense, this was a period when the FCC regulators were
increasingly telling the company that they had absolutely no right to
touch any commerce involving computerized services, and the Internet had
to smell like a big fat regulatory no-no to the company.  And since AT&T
would probably be barred from getting involved in a serious commercial
way, they had infinite self-interest in opposing and denigrating the whole
idea of packet-switching, since it was a threat to AT&T's whole set of
economic and technological assets.

Contrast this with Minitel in France where the state telecom system not
only dedicated itself to electronic communication but used the economic
proceeds from it to subsidize universal service to French customers who
had previously never had a phone.  It is an interesting fact (see my
earlier post) that where economic subsidies in the US went from
lower-income, basic phone users to subsidize upper-income Internet users,
the subsidies went in the opposite direction in France, from electronic
services users to fund basic service.

--Nathan Newman

-----Original Message-----
From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Cc: pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu <pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu>
Date: Thursday, November 05, 1998 1:57 PM
Subject: Internet question

I heard Peter Schwartz on NPR today saying that the government offered the
Internet to AT&T in 1978 and 1988.  The company turned down the offer
saying that it had no commercial value.  Can anybody verify that story?

Thanks.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu