From: Gary Welles 

With the nodelist being all telephone numbers, if FidoNet is part
of a network, it's the telephone network.  Certainly from a
FidoNet user's perspective and as been suggested an alternative
to the Internet.  Randy Bush's article explains it all for us:

    "FidoNet is a point-to-point and store-and-forward email WAN
    which uses modems on the direct-dial telephone network."

FidoNet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History
http://www.fidonet.org/inet92_Randy_Bush.txt

I found some hope for FidoNet in Vert Cerf's comments on MCI Mail
before they decided it had reached the end of it's product life
cycle.  The article has a history of MCI Mail up to that point.

    "In fact it's probably time to put it to bed, but anything
    that works is hard to stop."

Vinton G. Cerf an Oral History
http://www.cwheroes.org/oral_history_archive/vinton_g_cerf/oralhistory.pdf

And for a history of that Internet email we all seem to think
everybody uses now:

How Email Was Invented
http://livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm

-- Gary



--- Internet Rex 2.29