Communications Computers Data communications over telegraph circuits 1947

Jim Haynes

I'm just guessing, but I don't think the Teletype Corp had that much electronics capability. Later on they made electronic terminals as followups for the 33-35 line.

It's also possible AT&T didn't see that much demand to justify pushing the legal envelope, esp in the 1960s with a activist Democratic administration. It appears AT&T went aggressively with the areas it was allowed to go, and aggressively fight to maintain its exclusivity.

In hindsight, many people look back at IBM and AT&T in those days and say those companies didn't act properly. Yet we forget that both companies were forbidden by the govt to get into certain lines of services and products; and as time went on, some of the items became very profitable.

I also think IBM and AT&T wanted to respect each other's "spheres of influence" to avoid getting into a nasty fight. With deregulation in the 1980s, there was much talk of a big showdown between the two, but then other factors intervened. Undoubtedly many in both companies would've liked to get into the other's markets.

FWIW, Oslin mentions that IBM had a big chunk of MCI stock in its early days. I was a little disappointed to read that because I think of MCI as a sleazy company in those days. It was lawsuit crazy and sued its way to get business and a foothold. It also was aggressive and violated tariffs carrying traffic it was not authorized to have. I always felt it was unfair that MCI was allowed to undercut AT&T on 'cream' roots without handling the high cost lines AT&T was requird to law to carry. AT&T was further not allowed to match prices as it could've. MCI must have been a horrible place to work out in those early days as it constantly cycled from big success to near failure multiple times. When near failure it laid lots of people off.