As an aside, one of the folks on Dave Farber's "interesting_people" list might be able to give you a little better push in the right direction - that list is full of telecom pioneers: ethernet developers, cell phone inventors, et cetera. --elijah On Fri, 8 Sep 2006, elw@stderr.org wrote:
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 12:48:34 -0500 (CDT) From: elw@stderr.org Reply-To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] "last mile" query
That's a telco industry term, not originally an academic term.
The telephone network is very different between switching stations than it is between those switching stations and individual homes. Thus, the "last mile" terminology originated as a way of pointing out that the edge-of-network deployment issues were very different than those surrounding the core network - which is often made up of fiber, microwave links, et cetera. Things that you wouldn't expect to have run from the switching station to the curb in front of your house/apartment/etc.
"last mile" has of course been co-opted and adopted by people who want to talk about cable, fiber to the curb, etc. But -- start with practice in the telecoms industry.
[You might consider hunting around in some of the testimony from the Ma Bell monopoly case...]
--elijah
On Fri, 8 Sep 2006, Jonathan Sterne wrote:
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:03:37 -0400 From: Jonathan Sterne <jonathan.sterne@mcgill.ca> Reply-To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] "last mile" query
Hi All,
This is a request for bibliographic help.
I can find countless resources that USE the idea of the "last mile" to talk about end user access issues in a wide range of contexts. But I am having a much harder time tracking down the origins of the term or its early development with respect to cable, the internet and other networked technologies.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated, including suggestions for "classic texts" in the development of the idea.
Thank you.
--Jonathan
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