Last installment of “40 Days,” having learned Bell Labs and MiVu have been engaged in an ongoing “battle of the brains” for over two decades is eye-opening, right?
A Black tech startup, founded by a then veteran radio guru, in the state of Kansas, winds up changing the world. Can’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact, Kansas is the birthplace of Smart and Digital.
Sorry Silicon Valley. “Go Jayhawks!”
Just imagine what Padraic McFreen must have thought when he learned that his, then, startup, MiVu, not only hit upon the Achilles Heel of the, then, state of the art telecommunications network infrastructure, but to also learn that the stinger embedded within his MiVu logo, literally pierced the weakest point in the telecommunications industry. Must have been an exciting moment.
MiVu’s logo is significant. It is the graphical depiction of the MiVu Internet Network, showing three data types entering into a Network Operating Center (“Red Dot of the ‘i’”), exiting as a “Single Bundled Data Stream” via fiber, then, data streams wireless across the chasm of the “Last Mile” to “U.”
Just learning the hidden meaning of the MiVu logo, reinforces my conclusion about Genius. This author is no Genius by any stretch of the imagination, but I can see why Bell Labs has a bit of a chip on its shoulder when it comes to Padraic McFreen.
Imagine we’re there that very moment when this first-time tech founder waltzes in one day to the most influential, the then, six time Nobel Prize winning innovation lab, some random morning the month of September, in the year 2000.
We overhear Padraic McFreen casually say to Lucent Technologies: “yes,…I had an idea, so I went ahead and designed a network and industry to support it.
I, then, launched my startup this month around my new Last Mile Single Point Access Internet Network, supporting infrastructure and associated businesses, and I’m here, because I want your surplus network equipment so I can build it. How much?”
We weren’t there, but wow! I can hear them now say, “what the, what?” “You want to buy what?” According to Padraic McFreen, “that’s very close to how we were introduced and…I introduced myself.”
In 4Q/2000, Lucent Technologies’ primary telco network switch, 5ESS Switching System, was no longer “selling” in the telecommunications industry. “Nobody was building new telco networks.”
You see, Padraic McFreen didn’t reach out to Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs for their intellectual assistance. He walked in their doors to buy one of their mothballed network switches. He was planning to build the network himself, after he disassembled it and made all of the necessary modifications for an “always on, always connected” Internet end-user experience.
Lucent Technologies’ 5ESS Network Switch 2000
When Lucent Technologies discovered this fact, and the fact that he was actually capable of pulling it off, out came the “Big Bell Labs” guns to defend their hard-earned telecommunication network territory.
The telecommunications network equipment industry was dead by 4Q/2000.
Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs weren’t defending their once vital network territory, they were just happy to see a new network provider walk in the door.
The upper echelon within Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs were non-plus about the Black tech founder’s needs initially, and quickly changed their position as soon as they discovered the enormity of the MiVu 21st Century Access Network and the implications it would have for the telecommunications industry once he became successful.
By the time Padraic McFreen met with Lucent Technologies, he had investigated the feasibility and likelihood of acquiring the assets of the telco equipment maker and the resources of its coveted innovation lab.
From Padraic McFreen’s perspective, existing Lucent Technologies’ customers, referred to as CLECs, were no longer building new networks and, according to his research, network equipment purchased by CLECs and financed by Lucent Technologies, hadn’t been deployed.
His math pointed to warehouses filled with yet to be sold and delivered 5ESS network switches. “It was a gold mine of neglected opportunity just waiting to be tapped.”
He was a willing and able startup network founder ready to buy. This was going to be a “win-win.”
Oh the naiveté of a tech founder, right?
We already know what the Genius engineers at Bell Labs said to him, “what’s an Internet Access Network?” Even more interesting, we now know they also said “who cares about the “Last Mile,” later to do an about face once it was determined Padraic McFreen had discovered the proverbial “fountain of Internet youth.”
The Last Mile had gone from its multi-decade orphan status — completely ignored by the telecommunications industry — to one of the most discussed topics around the globe.
Just 80 days after the launch of Padraic McFreen’s startup, MiVu, the industry is now speaking his language — literally discussing “access networks” (words exclusive to MiVu)— and the Last Mile has suddenly become “mission critical.” Could it have anything to do with Bell Labs’ call into IEEE about MiVu?
“The last mile, first mile, local loop, access network: Whatever you choose to call it, the meaning’s the same — that part of the telecom network that links users with broadband services.” Light Reading
According to Light Reading from November 20, 2000, “Unfortunately, the last mile is the most primitive portion of the telecom network. Sources estimate that fewer than 5 percent of all office buildings and homes in the U.S. have fiber connectivity. The majority of broadband customers are battling for bandwidth over old-fashioned copper-based PSTN and leased lines.”
This highly respected publication goes further to state about solving the Last Mile’s primitive condition, “…extending the fiber broadband network…that also are starting to get attention…is the passive optical network (PON), a solution that’s still in the experimental stages, mostly at RBOCs like BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS) and SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) that have a burning need to make the most of existing fiber.”
In those 80 days, SBC, BellSouth, Lucent, Bell Labs, IEEE and more were all working on the “experimental MiVu Internet Network, the 21st Century Access Network” as the solution to all of their woes.
Take a moment with this revelation. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, “what exactly were they doing before MiVu?”
The telecommunications industry wasted absolutely no time embracing MiVu’s technology. It’s a big moment in startup lore. It is now easy to see why MiVu has been deemed the most important tech startup of the 21st Century. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
According to Padraic McFreen, Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs immediately began behaving as though they “knew it all the time, but were just waiting on the right opportunity to spring it on everyone.”
The Last Mile abandoned and an absolute “zero” to industry, but a “hero” to Padraic McFreen. Why? What did he see that the rest of the world simply overlooked?
Quite frankly, like all great thinkers, he had a theory. Only difference with him, he’s a “think-do-learn” thinking Genius.
“The closer primary content most important and personal to the end-user is delivered and made continuously available, the more time the end-user will spend with the device of delivery, the greater the affinity for the MiVu network and the larger the volume of data the end-user will consume.” —Padraic McFreen’s Theory of the Last Mile, Circa 2000
Padraic McFreen’s “Theory of the Last Mile” is no longer a theory. Have you reached a conclusion about Genius yet?
Genius or not, Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs were not to be out innovated by a Black tech startup from Kansas. And by now it’s no secret to this author nor you my dear reader, the telecommunications industry paid little to no attention to the Last Mile or even fathomed an Access Network that connected to the preexisting telecommunication network, before MiVu.