It was the Carterphone decision in 1968. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone The Carterphone was a device that allow

It was the Carterphone decision in 1968. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone The Carterphone was a device that allowed amateur radio to connect to the phone system, albeit with a Bell interface device. Another decision in 1978 removed the requirement for the Bell interface. Before this decision you had to rent modems from ma bell or use acoustic modems. Those were the good old days when you dialed up your computer and stuffed the phone handset into the side of your teletype for an astounding 300 baud connection. Fortunately teletypes were so clunky that you couldnt type any faster than that any way.