Carterfone
termnetworkingISP & telecom
The 1968 FCC decision that let equipment the telephone company had not made be attached to the telephone network.
Before it, the carrier decided what could touch its lines, and the answer was almost always its own equipment. The Carterfone was an acoustic coupler for linking a two-way radio to a phone call, and the ruling that allowed it established a principle far larger than the device: the network had to accept attachments that did it no harm. Every modem, multiplexer and data device sold by somebody other than the carrier descends from that opening, which is why an FCC decision about a radio accessory turns up at the start of so many company histories.
Also known as: carterfone decision, carterfone ruling