Voice
Communication in Business Volume 1
Essays on telecommunications,
1969-1980
PART 1
The way things were
Introduction
The Carterfone decision
came during the summer of 1968. Tom Carter was trying to market a
"phone patch" to allow a two-way radio to connect to the telephone
system. This would permit direct telephone conversations with people
on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, for instance. Most radio amateurs
(hams) had phone patches, and the telephone company pretended not to
notice. But the sale of such a "foreign attachment" had to be
opposed.
After some years of
litigation. the phrase from the earlier "Hush-a-Phone" case was seen
to apply: The Carterfone was "privately beneficial without being
publicly detrimental." This opened the door to interconnecting
almost any privately owned equipment to the public telephone
network. Because business communications, unlike residential
telephone service, left much to be desired, the Carterfone decision
appeared to be of the greatest importance to those who managed
corporate communications. Had their needs been considered in the
first place, it is unlikely that Carterfone would have happened.
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