ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that the Internet has affected the world of telecommu nications. Its impact on telecom is even more dramatic than on nearly all the other industries combined. In retrospect, the rise of the Internet was com pletely logical and obvious, even as far back as the 70s. Everything was mov ing towards a greater use of networking as a major computer strategy. When Data General and DEC first proposed networks of computers as an alternative architecture to the IBM world of “ big hummer” mainframes and “ intelligent terminals,” it appeared to be a stupid idea. But, in reality, the only thing miss ing was the bandwidth necessary for truly distributed applications. In 1978, a 9600 baud data line was considered “ high speed” . AT&T had just introduced the 212A modem, which offered 1200 baud over switched connections, and the Dataphone II allowed 9600 baud connections.
