Ten Years Ago... Surge of On-Line Users Strain Internet Systems

Surge of On-Line Users Strain Internet Systems
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 12/18/1996, AUTHOR: Jared Sandberg]
Busy signals and dead dial tones apparently were the season's greeting for thousands of on-line customers of various Internet services back in '96. The delays and dropped calls were the worst at America Online. That system was having trouble keeping up with a surge of new users and users staying online for longer. The phone companies were also having trouble providing enough lines for Internet access and regular phone calls. Some of the Baby Bells began asking the FCC to establish a fee for Internet service providers. PacTel was expanding to accommodate Internet users and warned that phone customers would end up paying for high Internet use over phone lines.
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