My understanding was that most of the internet infrastructure was laid by Bell before their break-up because they projected video calling being a huge use case in the future.
1982 seem a bit early for the massive fiber rollout. My recollection was that Sprint was the driving factor for laying fiber, since they had the railroad right-of-ways. But that was quite a while back. Maybe there was also another dark-horse company laying fiber along railroads, but not operating as a phone company? Something not quite at the tip of my tongue. Seems like someone could have written a good history book about internet infrastructure, especially the mid-to-late 90s. Anyone have suggestions?
Sprint is the de-acronymized name for SPRINT: Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony
They started doing public long distance on their own (railroad) network in the 1970s. They were restrained (and frequently sued by) AT&T. The breakup opened the floodgates. They were sold like a half dozen times in the 80s.
But, MCI was AFAIK the largest early fiber pioneer.
The place that I heard about Bell Labs was: The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner
I did a search for books about building the internet infrastructure and it turned up some other recommendations but I haven't read them so can't vouch for quality or content:
Network Geeks: How They Built the Internet by Brian E Carpenter
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum
How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone by Brian McCullough
Maybe someone else here has read them and can comment.
I’d read that…I’d love to hear an Acquired podcast on the path of Long Distance Discount Services -> WorldCom -> MCI -> Verizon. They laid down a lot of fiber.
