The Accidental Network: How a Small Company Sparked a Global Broadband Transformation - Hardcover

Yassini-fard, Rouzbeh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1959000608 ISBN 13: 9781959000600

Verlag: West Virginia University Press, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

“How would our lives change,” wondered entrepreneur Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard in 1987, “if everyday people had a stable, high-speed data connection to the Internet?” While he wasn’t the first to imagine a world of digital connectivity, Yassini-Fard was in the vanguard by creating the cable modem, which transformed residential Internet access from its slow, frustrating dial-up origins to a fast, always-on, and extraordinary connectivity tool by harnessing the existing infrastructure of the residential cable network.
The Accidental Network shares the untold story of the invention of the cable modem by the small, struggling tech company LANcity in the early 1990s, illustrating how Yassini-Fard overcame a cascade of technical challenges, investment community naysayers, and unnerving business obstacles to create the cable modem technology that has changed the way billions of individuals across the globe now manage their daily lives and commerce. The cable modem delivered broadband, with speeds ranging from 10 megabits per second (Mbps) to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps)—a big leap from the dial-up speeds of 56 kilobits per second (Kbps). This platform, along with the adoption of the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard, engendered the modern revolution in broadband Internet access. Shunned by venture capitalists and surviving on a shoestring budget, Yassini-Fard and his colleagues were willing to bet it all (including the deed for Yassini-Fard’s home) on the creation of the cable modem and the pursuit of global adoption.
The Accidental Network is both a valuable history of technology innovation and an engrossing account of business conducted at high speed. The book details Yassini-Fard’s journey from electrical engineer to entrepreneur in the race to secure technology partners, create a wholly new marketplace, and convince cable industry executives that a bold business awaited in transmitting data to households at a time when skepticism about the reach of personal computing was the norm.
Written from the lens of a devoted idealist and WVU alum known as “the father of the cable modem,” this book reveals how a perfect storm of forces—the rise of cable television, the onset of the personal computing era, a growing awareness of the Internet for information and commerce, and the development of the cable modem—converged to usher in the age of broadband access.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard is a technology entrepreneur and philanthropist whose Massachusetts-based organization, YAS Foundation, supports innovation and creativity, addressing medical technology, telecommunications advocacy, educational scholarship, and cultural collaboration. His is widely known as the “father of the cable modem,” tracing back to the breakthrough achievements around high-speed data technology pioneered by LANcity, a company Yassini founded in 1988.
Stewart Schley is a journalist who writes about the business of media and telecommunications. He is the founding editor of Cable World magazine.
John Chambers is former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems.
 

Von der hinteren Coverseite

“How would our lives change,” wondered entrepreneur Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard in 1987, “if everyday people had a stable, high-speed data connection to the Internet?” While he wasn’t the first to imagine a world of digital connectivity, Yassini-Fard was in the vanguard by creating the cable modem, which transformed residential Internet access from its slow, frustrating dial-up origins to a fast, always-on, and extraordinary connectivity tool by harnessing the existing infrastructure of the residential cable network.
As the leader of a small Massachusetts company, LANcity, in the early 1990s, Yassini-Fard overcame a cascade of technical challenges, investment community naysayers, and unnerving business obstacles to create the cable modem technology that has changed the way billions of individuals across the globe now manage their daily lives and commerce. Shunned by venture capitalists and surviving on a shoestring budget, Yassini-Fard and his colleagues were willing to bet it all on the creation of the cable modem and the pursuit of its widescale global adoption.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: West Virginia University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1959000608
• ISBN 13: 9781959000600
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 210
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande