As I look to Thanksgiving, my immediate thanks naturally goes
to my family and the wonderful gifts they have all given me. This blog, however, is focused on my
professional observations–so it is appropriate in this space to reflect on my
thanks for the perpetual gift given to me thirty years ago: The gift of this industry, the gift that
keeps giving.
In 1983, I was fortunate
to be hired by a small telecom company in Middletown RI called Avanti
Communications. Some of you know
that 1983 was also the year that Judge Harold Greene made the landmark ruling
that broke AT&T into the seven regional Bell companies. This decision set in motion the industry as
we know it today. It ushered in long-distance competition and the idea of private networks. Most of all, it was the starting gun for
innovation in telecom and internet technologies (Cisco was founded 5 years
later) and Avanti was in the middle of that early revolution. Avanti had some brilliant employees who later
spread out into the industry and had significant impact in many different areas
of the business–from building important companies like Newbridge, to developing innovative
products like the Juniper E Series which handles a huge chunk of the edge
routing infrastructure in today’s internet.
Locally, our partner Atrion was founded by two of my former colleagues at
Avanti: Charlie Nault and Tim Hebert. At
Avanti, I was hired at first to be in Tech Support, handling trouble calls and
dialing in to network nodes that handled applications like Pan Am’s voice
reservations, the printing of the Wall Street Journal and Reuter’s trading
network. The T-1 multiplexer we had
developed was highly innovative and one of the first software controlled
devices of its kind. It was interesting
to be hired without any experience but my hiring manager stated that no one had
any so he just had to find people who could learn quickly and adapt. A number of my colleagues from Avanti are
still in contact with me, and a couple of them have become my best friends in
the world.
Aside from the people, this gift includes the wonderful aspect
of being able to participate in technology evolution and, in some cases, revolution. I have always been fascinated by technology, and
what better seat could I have been given to witness the amazing technical
innovations which produced what we now enjoy as high speed internet? I have witnessed complete life cycles for
technologies like modems, ISDN, SNA and on and on. We used 2.4Kbps dial modems at Avanti and now
I am looking at how soon we will implement 100Gbps Dense Wave Division Multiplexed
fiber links into our network. Again, the
gift that keeps on giving.
Thirty years later, the perpetual gift has presented me with
a new offering here at OSHEAN and I can truly say thanks again!