I agree with the notion that early on, participants were pre-qualified by having to clear a small hurdle of hardware reqs and technical chops to connect. The m

I agree with the notion that early on, participants were pre-qualified by having to clear a small hurdle of hardware reqs and technical chops to connect. The mobile phone changed the barrier to entry forever on Internet 1.0, but if the satco's decided to launch petabytes of storage into space and require a specific basestation/modem to access the signal, that small hurdle would limit participation to those that made an effort and effectively leave 99% of Inet1 behind. Perhaps not the best example, but all it takes is a small technical hurdle to limit participation.