The Accidental Network: How a Small Company Sparked a Global Broadband Transformation
Language: English
Published by West Virginia University Press, 2025
- Hardcover
- New

Seller: California Books, Miami, FL, U.S.A.California Books
AbeBooks seller since October 27, 2023
Condition: New
£ 23.84
Quantity: 6 available
Add to basketSeller Inventory # I-9781959000600
- Title
- The Accidental Network: How a Small Company Sparked a Global Broadband Transformation
- Author
- Yassini-Fard, Rouzbeh
- Publisher
- West Virginia University Press
- Publication year
- 2025
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1959000608
- ISBN 13
- 9781959000600
The Accidental Network tells the untold story of the invention of the cable modem by the small, struggling tech company LANcity in the early 1990s, illustrating how Yassini-Fard overcame a cascade of technical challenges, investment community naysayers, and unnerving business obstacles to create the cable modem technology that has changed the way billions of individuals across the globe now manage their daily lives and commerce. The cable modem delivered broadband, with speeds ranging from 10 megabit per second (Mbps) to 10 gigabit per second (Gbps)―a big leap from the dial-up speeds of 56 kilobits per second (Kbps). This hardware, along with the adoption of the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard, engendered the modern revolution in broadband internet access. Shunned by venture capitalists and surviving on a shoestring budget, Yassini-Fard and his colleagues were willing to bet it all (including the deed for Yassini-Fard’s home) on the creation of the cable modem and the pursuit of its widescale global adoption.
The Accidental Network is both a valuable history of technology innovation and an engrossing account of business conducted at high speed. The book details Yassini-Fard’s journey from electrical engineer to entrepreneur in the race to secure technology partners, create a wholly new marketplace, and convince cable industry executives that there was money to be made in transmitting data to households at a time when skepticism about the reach of personal computing was the norm.
Written from the lens of an Iranian immigrant and WVU alum known as “the father of the cable modem,” this book reveals how a perfect storm of forces―the rise of cable television, the onset of the personal computing era, a growing awareness of the Internet for information and commerce, and the development of the cable modem―converged to usher in the age of broadband access.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Stewart Schley is a journalist who writes about the business of media and telecommunications. He is the founding editor of Cable World magazine.
John T. Chambers is former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
California Books
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