Comment by mschuster91
16 hours ago
> But we had successful global networks before the Internet (the PSTN, telegraph)
These were ripe with espionage, wiretapping and sabotage. Access to it used to be highly restricted as well, up until the 90s for example you were only allowed to connect government-licensed modems to the German PSTN directly.
> These were ripe with espionage, wiretapping and sabotage.
Just like today's Internet. BGP spoofing, CALEA, DDoS.
> Access to it used to be highly restricted as well ...
And this is where the regression or "downfall" is beginning. Access to the Internet (as in ability to send/receive arbitrary data to the wider Internet) is something I bet is going to be increasingly restricted, but most people won't notice because they don't understand the difference between apps and the Internet.
I'd be surprised if direct access to the Internet is possible for consumers in the next 10 years. Everything will have to be through approved apps (age assurance is going to be the catalyst) that work over registered tunnels contracted through ISPs, if there isn't an outright blurring or merger between the concepts of phone/CPE, ISP and CDN. Your non-tech layperson will not know any difference whatsoever if all they use are their phone plan, streaming/banking apps and Facebook.
Surely this was simply the nature of Deutsche Bundespost / Deutsche Telekom? Like, of course you had to use hardware they had approved to connect to their network.
This was the same in many places. The cost of hardware and connection time limited connections, and no one had cryptography except the government and ultra nerds.
There was also no way for a normal person to easily and cheaply communicate with 20 million people in realtime.