WEBVTT - The AT&T Story - Part Three 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in Touch with technology was tex Stuff from house 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.720 stuff Works dot com. Hey then, everyone, and welcome to 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.200 text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren and we 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.319 are going to conclude our mega epic series on A 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.200 T and T, the the company that UH that could 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.800 because it was the only one that could and uh 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.040 which the government had something to say about several times. Yeah. 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.080 So in our last episode we concluded with the two, 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.960 which was the end of the jurisdiction between the Department 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.960 of Justice and A T and T. The ruling was 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:45.879 that A T. T had to divest itself of the 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.160 regional operating carriers, the bell companies that had so so 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.200 so that was that was when mob Bell split into 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.600 several baby bells. Yeah, they were all I think there 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.000 was something like seven regional major regional operating carriers and 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.000 A T and T. The The deal was that A T. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.280 T was getting out of the local telephone business and 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.440 concentrating solely on on providing service for a long distance 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.520 as well as getting into the burgeoning computer industry, right, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.240 which would be very important or will be very important 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.400 for this current episode that we are about to embark ponds. 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.679 This is uh. I titled this in my notes as 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.200 part three getting to the bit that we're in now, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.399 because I'm great at titles. So that brings us up 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.400 to three. When A T and T opens the first 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.480 commercial cellular telephone system in the telephone system, that was 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.800 an interesting emphosis on that salable in the United States 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.960 in Chicago under Ameritech, which was soon to be divested 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.959 from A T and T according to those rules that 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.760 we talked about laid down in the nineteen two settlement 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.200 of the antitrust lawsuit, but at that time in Merritech 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.000 was still under A T and T. Because again, it 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.600 takes time to actually act upon these these judgments. So 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.720 here we have the first cellular telephone system for commercial use, 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.960 and uh yeah, this cellular approach was uh something that 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.800 really made mobile telephones possible because if you remember from 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.880 our last episode, A T and T had created mobile phones, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.280 but they would connect to a specific radio antenna and 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.520 you had to be within range to use it, and 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:17.440 if you moved out of range, that was it. Your 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.639 call would just end. Um. Cellular telephones had a bunch 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:22.519 of towers that would allow you to move within and 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.560 out of range of various towers. There was kind of 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.240 a handshake and electronic handshake involved where you would continue 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.359 to get service even as you moved out of one 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.360 tower's operating area into another. And all of this technology 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:36.079 was thanks to advancements that came out of a T 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.960 and T Labs. Basically that it's it's that that handshake 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.239 that Jonathan is is talking about. You know, let's let's 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.320 the cells automatically transfer call from one tower to the 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.880 next as as a caller moves through them. And yep, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.200 that came out of what was formerly or I guess 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.799 currently at that very moment still Bell Labs, but would 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.079 very soon become a T and T Labs. Yeah, so 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.960 it's um one of those one of those crazy develop 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.720 elements that gives us the ability to use technology the 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.760 way we do today. Just imagine if we had not 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.400 come up with that, if a T and T had 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.240 not come up with it, and let's say that you know, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.920 it had been delayed several years, we'd be in a 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.320 very different world right now. So it was pretty amazing 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.679 stuff that that same year, a researcher at a T 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.200 and T named Beyond Strew Strip which I'm sure I 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.640 mispronounced this name. Turn they did not look it up. 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.240 I didn't even write his name in my notes because 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.160 I was unwilling to try to pronounce it. He debuted 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.079 C plus plus. Yeah, yeah it was. It was so 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.280 much better than C it got two pluses. But yeah, 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.280 C plus plus is an object oriented programming language that 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.640 came out of the Bell Labs development laboratory. So that's 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.800 a little more redundant. In January one four, it's early, y'all. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.040 So in January one that's when Bell system ceases to 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:52.240 be Yes, this is the official end of everything that 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:56.040 that needed to end according to those agreements from right. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:57.600 So now we've gotten the boy where A T and 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.080 T is divested of those other companies and is its 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.480 own entity. UH. It retains long distance operations as well 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.839 as the R and D labs and manufacturing, so all 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.360 of that belongs under the umbrella of A T and T. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.960 And then all that local services handled by those seven 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.600 divested regional building brakes companies and UH that year, Equal 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.880 Access Carrier Selection begins, which is a ruling by the 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.560 FCC said that all telephone customers should be given a 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.000 choice as to which long distance company they would use 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.520 when dialing long distance numbers, so uh that you know, now, 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.800 the regional operating companies, even though they used to be 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.520 part of A T and T, could not give A 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.480 T and T preferential treatment. They could not say, this 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.040 is the company that you have to use if you're 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:42.560 going to make long distance. They had to give you 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.680 open access to all competitors. So A T and T 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.000 at that time also begins to lower long distance rates. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.160 Um and they said that. They said that it was 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.840 improvements in their infrastructure that lowered costs and that allowed 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.800 them to lower the rates. Really, what I think was 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.400 happening was that because as they had I mean A T. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.200 T went from having nearly a hundred and fifty billion 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:08.320 in assets before the breakup to thirty four billion after 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.840 after this mob Bell to baby Bell break up, which 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.599 is sevent drop an asset value, which is pretty alarming 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.680 when you're a giant company. Um and so, so competitors 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.599 at the time like Sprint and m c I were 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.320 pricing to undersell A T and T pretty seriously. You 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.800 guys might remember some of the commercials that were coming 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:31.080 out around that time of just the crazy backbiting price 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.680 war stuff that was going on. And remember, you know, 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.719 m c I was the company that had led the 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.120 charge against A T and T back in the seventies 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:44.240 that eventually evolved into that antitrust lawsuit. So this is 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.080 you know, A T. T said that it's because of 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.920 improvements in service, but in reality, I think we can 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.160 say that this was so that they could remain competitive 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.280 now that it was more of a level playing ground 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.479 in the long distance space, and if they didn't lower 0:05:57.600 --> 0:05:59.760 their prices then they had a real risk of losing 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.680 their customers. The you know, these these two competitors and 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.440 and others as well, would would take huge gnawing bytes 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.680 out of A T and T over the next several years. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.800 But um nonethless would see a six increase in long 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.719 distance calling between now and now being over the next 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.800 fifteen years. So, you know, long distance was still a 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:26.160 very major thing because wireless didn't exist. We hadn't really 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.760 moved on to a post long distance world. I can't 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:31.479 remember the last time I was charged for a long 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.240 distance call that wasn't say, an international call. It was 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.400 about two thousand one for me. Wow, So did everyone 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.640 just move near you? Or was that when things changed? 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:44.200 That's when I got a cell phone? Oh got you 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.600 all right, Yeah, that's about when I did too. I'm sure, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:48.479 I think maybe a lot earlier. It's hard for me 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.440 to remember years ago by so quickly. Alright, So between 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:58.000 four and nothing happened. Actually, I just didn't find anything 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.839 that I thought was its uff happened. I just didn't 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.360 fin anything I found particularly noteworthy to add in my notes. 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.000 So let's go to excellent. That's when A T and 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.400 T lays down the tapped eight, the T a T eight, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.280 which was another transatlantic telephone cable. This one made a 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.160 fiber optics Yeah, so across the Atlantic obviously, and could 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.800 carry ten times the number of calls the earlier copper 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.680 cable could handle. Now remember the originally we were talking about, 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:27.800 you know, copper cable able to handle thirty or forty 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.080 calls at most. The earliest one is only able to 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:35.160 handle one at a time. By this time, so you think, oh, 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.280 ten times the number, why is it like so it's 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.400 a hundred calls. No, by this time they had improved 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.440 the technology significantly. We're talking forty thousand simultaneous calls. So 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.360 when all of your buddies want to call all of uh, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.960 you know, each other across the pond. This is what 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.880 makes it possible without getting a signal saying sorry, all 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:58.240 lines are busy. Uh. In eight T Labs began working 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.320 on hd t V, specifically on the kind of high 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.880 speed signal processing problems that arise when a computer needs to, 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.200 you know, receive de code and display a large amount 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.760 of data in real time. But this is pretty impressive 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.400 for those of you who are HDTV enthusiasts. Here in 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.800 the United States, HDTV had a fairly late start. It 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.520 got earlier start in Japan. Uh, and it took a 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.760 while for there to be an agreed upon set of 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.280 standards guiding h d t V because obviously you need 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.760 to be able to have all the different players involved 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.920 working on those same set of standards. The delivery of 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.720 the quality of the signal needs to be correct. The 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.000 manufacturers need to be working on a similar approach. So 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.480 this was very early on. Then A T and T 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.480 was looking at this is saying this is going to 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.200 be a thing. It's not a thing now, It's probably 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.000 not gonna be a thing for maybe ten years, but 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.120 we need to work on it now. It would also 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.800 turn out to be pretty forward thinking for them, because 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.320 they would wind up getting pretty seriously into the cable 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.280 industry in just another few years, right forward, thinking hand. 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.920 For some reason, I love that phrase. Bell Labs also 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.319 was working at that time on a speech actuated manipulator 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.880 also known as SAM oh right, Yeah, and that that 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.320 would that would become kind of important in another couple 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:14.920 of years as well. Yeah, it's kind of neat. This 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.680 was like an early approach to trying to create a 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:22.520 robot that could respond to natural language commands, so things 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.920 like turn left or lower your arm, that kind of thing. Uh, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.040 And it was just really the early days sort of 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.280 a proof of concept to create robots that could do. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.720 This also meant that they were working very hard on 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:41.080 improving just natural language recognition, which is that's incredibly difficult. 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.720 It's hard to teach a computer that, you know, we 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.240 can say the same command a hundred different ways. For 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.640 the computer to be able to interpret all one hundred 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.480 of those variations as a single command and differentiate it 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.440 from every other command is phenomenal. Yeah, especially in English, 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.640 which is pretty messy in really wonderful ways. When we 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.720 start being an idiom, that's really like wave it around 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:05.680 like you just don't care that robot is going to 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.720 have some trouble. First of all, it doesn't care. Robots 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.600 don't care. They don't care. They don't that robot program 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:13.680 to pretend to care. Yeah, that's about as good as 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:15.280 we can get. I mean it's yeah, I've known some 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.400 people that way too, so I'm not going to speak 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.680 down to robots too much. Um. Now, moving on to nine, 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.400 that's when A T and T acquired in CR Corporation, 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.880 which is a computer manufacturing company. I think with this 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.199 they were really hoping to start hopping that that software 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.480 hardware divide or or I guess it's the networking hardware 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:41.240 divide more so they again we're looking forward to too, Yeah, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:42.719 to really get in that, but I mean that that 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:44.480 was one of the things that they were allowed to 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.240 do now after that two judgment. Uh, and this was 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.559 kind of a real serious move into that space. Um. 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:58.280 In two, they unveiled the Voice English Spanish Translator or VEST, 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.120 which was first developed back in but it was first 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.760 unveiled in ninety two, so they're still working on those 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.680 improvements to voice technology. He could recognize about four hundred 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.160 fifty words and around a billion different combinations. And the 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.720 way it would work is that you would speak into 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.600 the microphone. The software would first attempt to identify what 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.440 language you are speaking, either English or Spanish. At that point, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.719 when it had identified the language, it would then translate 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.720 what you were saying into the other language, so English 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.520 and Spanish or Spanish to English via text. What it 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.240 would do is break down your sentences into little basic 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.000 component parts and then translate those component parts, which anyone 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.040 who has done any translation knows is not a you know, 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.200 full proof way of translating, because sometimes if you break 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.280 a sense down, you can involve multiple parts of a sentence, again, 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.400 especially in English, where your ward order is not perhaps 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.880 as structured as it might be in other languages. I mean, 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.000 I would love to see this in action, just because 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.920 it again is tackling one of those fundamentally difficult problems 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:05.280 for human computer interaction. In A T and T merged 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.480 with maccaw Cellular Communications Incorporated, which at that time was 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.760 the largest provider of cellular service in the United States. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.680 So that acquisition eventually means that the the entity that 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:22.360 was McCaw Cellular Communications becomes A T T Wireless along 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.199 with another company will mention in a bit, But that 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.440 same year, A T and t also introduced the Model 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.559 seventy video phone. Yeah, that was kind of a video 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.760 teleconferencing hardware. And you know that they had had such 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.880 rousing lack of success with their picture phone that that 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.160 but but but they realized that people were more willing 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.200 to do this a and an work environment and be 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.360 on a computer than they were on a phone. Yeah, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.880 so this was allowing simultaneous video transmission, so that it 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.080 kind of predecessor to the video software we used today 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.400 for things like Skype or other Google hangouts, those kind 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.760 of video hangout things. It also would allow some limited 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.600 use of letting, like the person who's calling you manipulate 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.840 files so you can open the files within it and 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.840 have so it's kind of like a video conferencing system 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:15.360 very early on, So pretty impressive considering. Yeah, I mean, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.040 you know, that's we're still talking like this is still 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.600 the very early days of the Worldwide Web. Keep in mind, 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.800 you out that that really hadn't even launched till nine two. 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.480 So seeing some video communication stuff in ninety three was exciting. 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.520 You know, I can remember the first time I ever 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.000 saw any kind of video communication. I remember exactly what 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.400 I was doing. What what were you doing. I was 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.000 at the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or EPCUT as 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.920 it is called now it's no longer known as its 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:45.679 full name. So they used to have these consoles mounted 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.960 on columns where you could walk up to the consoles. Yeah, hello, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.120 touchscreen interface, You press a button and then you would 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.120 get greeted by a cast member who would ask what 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.120 what you needed, and you could ask them anything that 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.240 had to do with the parks. Eventually you could do 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.959 things like even uh, dining reservations. That way, you could 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.040 say I would like to eat at Mexico at noon, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.760 and they would they would make that Mexico being the 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:13.400 pavilion in the World Showcase. It wouldn't. Actually now we 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.880 still don't have that technology. I'm waiting on it. I wouldn't. 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.160 I wouldn't put it past Disney to just have that 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.240 in the back pocket. But yeah, but it must have 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:23.480 been right around this same time, all right, right in 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.680 the early nineties, right, speaking of names no longer meaning 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.080 that long drawn out thing that they used to mean 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.080 in that's when A T. T legally changed their name 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.000 from the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation to just A 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.240 T and T Corp. Or corporation. I mean the corporation 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.680 stays the same, Yeah, but it was just a T 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.760 and T. So now it's as telegraphs were no longer 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.560 a thing. Kind of like when you look at certain 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:49.680 names that used to mean one thing. Now it's just 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.440 the initials. So you might ask, like, what does AMC mean? 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.400 And it used to me in American movie classics. Now 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.360 it's just a m C. That's just the name. So, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.120 same sort of thing. So moving up to n IF, 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.920 that's when a T and T restructures into three separate companies. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.600 So one of them is a T and T. That's 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.640 the services company. It's the one that we all know 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:14.040 and are familiar with. The second one becomes Lucent Technologies. 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.400 Now that is a products and systems company. Uh, it's 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:22.160 really kind of a manufacturing company for certain types of electronics. 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.080 And the third is a computer company that returns to 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.720 the NCR name. You know, they purchased NCR just a 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.560 few years earlier, and Loosen and n c R eventually 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.640 both spin off as their own companies. Uh. The following year, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.320 in fact, we got a little bit more we want 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.960 to say about the following year. But before we do that, 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.640 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. You've 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.320 probably tried Hulu dot com. Now with Hulu Plus, you 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.720 can watch your favorite shows anytime, anywhere. 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Right now, you can try Hulu Plus 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.600 free for two weeks when you go to Hulu plus 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.680 dot com forward slash Tech. That's a special offer for 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.720 our listeners. Make sure you use Hulu plus dot com 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.160 forward slash tech so you get the extended free trial 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.320 and they know that we sent you. Go to Hulu 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.080 Plus dot com forward slash Tech Now. One show that 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.600 I recommend checking out, at least the first season anyway, 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.720 is Heroes. It was one of those takes on television 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.720 of creating a superhero show, uh if superheroes were somehow 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.280 grounded in our real world. And that first season has 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.520 a lot going for it that I really enjoyed, and uh, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.600 that's thing that I will watch, you know, I'll just 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.200 do a marathon session, sit down and just watch episode 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.560 after episode, and it really becomes a challenge to figure 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.720 out when I'm going to turn it off, which is 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.119 a great problem to have. Go check it out. Alright, 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.560 So it's back to nineteen nineties six. That's when the 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.840 Telecommunications Act of nineteen becomes law. You know, I was 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.679 going to make a joke about how they wanted to 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.159 call the Telecommunications Act of nine the Telecommunications Act of 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:26.920 but it published in nine and they thought it would 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:28.640 confuse everyone. But then I realized I made that joke 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.920 in the last episode. Well good, I'm glad that you're 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.359 growing as a host. Thanks. Yeah, it doesn't stop me 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.679 from making jokes, It just it just it just prompts 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.080 me to explain why I'm making the same joke. Twice. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.520 I know, I'm I'm lame. It's okay, I've dealt with it. Okay. 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.160 So this so this act was an FCC attempt to 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.160 to regulate the industry to promote greater competition. Right, yeah, 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.720 again it was yeah yeah, because again it was it 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.560 was a growing industry. This is another example of how 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.520 technology evolves faster than the legal system can necessarily handle. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.600 So we get these big leaps in technology relatively speaking, 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.600 and then the legal system says, you know, this has 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.359 outgrown the parameters for what we had envisioned because the 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.680 technology can do more than what we what it used 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.160 to be able to. Right. Previously, you know, cable and 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.760 telephones and data had all been very separate, and this 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.280 brought them all under one umbrella. Right, So similar to 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.480 how we see cable companies that do both the transmission 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.679 of data and they provide some of that data as 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.359 in they create content that would also become you know, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.680 another challenge that that we're still struggling with today because 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.240 you know, it's it's getting very messy. If one person 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.199 owns all the roads but allows everybody to play on 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.560 those roads, net neutrality is maintained and everyone's happy, but 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.320 if everyone owns all the roads and also owns a 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.199 lot of the busses that go on those roads, and 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.800 then decides to let those buses get the express lane 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:00.640 and everyone else gets the slowly, that's when you start 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.600 getting into problems. So the Telecommunications Act of nineteen was 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.760 sort of a predecessor to some of the acts and 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.880 some of the proposed legislation that would follow to try 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.040 and maintain net neutrality. Um, and of course that's like 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:19.080 I said, that's a battle that's still ongoing to this day. 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.120 That's when A T and T signs a merger agreement 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.240 with T c I, which was a cable company. Yeah, 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.160 they were also working at the time on converting their 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.680 entire network from analog to digital data delivery. So yeah, 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.720 in nineteen, if you remember from our last podcast, this 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.080 is actually when that final electro mechanical switch was switched 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.000 over to computerized switch. I bet there was a big ceremony. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.119 I hope that electro mechanical switches enjoying retirement. But A T. 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.399 T also went back to the consumer local telephone business 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.719 because it introduced a residential service in New York. So 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.280 first time A T and T gets into the local 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.960 telephone service since it had divested itself of those regional 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.919 bell companies back in two right. Um, they also complet 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.400 did that merger with t c I and started looking 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.240 to acquire a second cable company called Media One. Yeah, 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:07.520 they're really serious about now. And they also rolled out 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.440 the largest DSL initiative in the industry for broadband customers. 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.159 I was never a DSL customer. I was always a 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.960 cable modem customer. But I've got a lot of friends 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.080 who used DSL for both voice and data, and uh yeah, 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.000 that was that was a big deal back then. Oh sure. Well, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.560 at the time, long distance revenue was decreasing for a 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:29.800 T and T at a rate about twenty each year 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:32.879 due to these these changes in the way that the 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.240 world was working, in the way that people were accessing 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.960 information and telecommunications, and uh so, you know, they were 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.199 although they were working and they had spent some hundred 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.439 billion dollars on acquiring these cable TV companies, they were 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.480 still pretty dependent on long distance as as a profit, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.360 and so they were kind of they were kind of stared. Yeah, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.080 they had to look at other means of generating revenue 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:58.119 because with the the threat to long distance looming and 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.040 getting getting worse each year. They knew that if they 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.240 were to have any viability as a as a any 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.760 type of company, let alone a major, enormous company, they 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.359