[dredmorbius]

There were definitely problems and abuses with the model.

But the hardware itself was robust and reliable.

[bsder]

Remember: "We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company"

Fake commercial on Saturday Night Season 2 Episode 1.

(It wasn't called Saturday Night Live until later.)

[dredmorbius]

I find the story of Walter Shaw Sr. even more instructive.

Independent inventor convicted and gaoled by AT&T for "misdemeanor attachment", the crime of attaching non-AT&T equipment to AT&T's phone network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_L._Shaw

More on this in the first bit of "The Inventor and the Thief" on Snap Judgement:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/snapjudgment/episodes/l...

[CamperBob2]

Because the hardware didn't do much of anything!

[dredmorbius]

Contrast Minitel, a videotext online system provided by the French government phone monopoly Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones in 1980.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel