Speak Your Piece: Internet Ghosts

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[Commentary] The current battle over Network Neutrality has deep roots, oddly enough, in rural America. In 1891, a Kansas undertaker named Almon Strowger patented the first telephone switch. His innovation, he would later say, was compelled by a local telephone operator who limited calls to his business while favoring calls to his competitor, with whom she was romantically involved. The telephone switch, in turn, enabled federal "common carrier" rules to ensure non-discriminatory treatment of all phone calls, a regulatory regime which has governed our nation's telephone system for more than 100 years. But there's more to the net neutrality back-story. In the 1950s, a Texas cattle rancher named Thomas Carter believed he could connect a two-way radio to the telephone back at his ranch-house, allowing him to make calls while riding his far-flung ranch on horseback. By 1958, his CarterPhone was working and ready to market. But AT&T cried foul, claiming this new application might harm its network. A 10-year legal battle ensued. It ended when the Federal Communications Commission approved the CarterPhone rule, which stated that innovative applications could connect if they did no harm to the network. The CarterPhone regulation gave us innovations such as fax, answering machines, and data modems. Combined, common carrier and CarterPhone regulations are the heart of net neutrality.


Speak Your Piece: Internet Ghosts