The 90's
It’s 1996. As a sophomore in High School I was preoccupied with trying to be a company-abiding cashier at Walmart. Unbeknownst to me, Online shopping was becoming a thing, and merchants like eBay and Amazon realized it may not be a good idea to take credit card numbers over the internet in clear text for anyone to see!
This digital economy, clearly, wasn’t born in a flash. Interestingly, it rose quietly on the back of expanding fiber and bandwidth, turning invisible infrastructure into an always-on commerce.
Some companies saw this shift and pressed down on the gas. Others, chained to legacy thinking were buried in their own inertia. So the real shift wasn’t happening at my checkout register in a Cincinnati Walmart, it was unfolding on the wires strung along the telephone poles outside.
What Happened?
Evolution of Telecommunications
The digital boom didn’t start in browsers, it started in the wires. Here’s how telecom infrastructure quietly laid the foundation for the e-commerce era
1980s–1990s: Voice Lines, Modems, and Friction
AOL and EarthLink dominated early access, but speeds were brutal. Telecoms like AT&T and Bell Atlantic hesitated to invest in data infrastructure, viewing it as a side business.
· The Internet ran on analog phone lines (PSTN)
· Dial-up modem speeds were capped at 56 Kbps
· It was painfully slow, but it lit the fuse for what was possible
Late 1990s–Early 2000s: DSL & Cable Rise
AT&T and Verizon rolled out DSL, while Comcast and Time Warner pushed cable internet. The upgrade costs were significant, and ROI wasn’t guaranteed, but it opened the door to e-commerce.
· Next came DSL over copper and coaxial broadband over TV lines.
· Speeds jump from 1–10 Mbps.
· The first real support for online shopping, media, and payments arrive on the scene.
Mid-2000s: Fiber Changes the Game
Verizon led the charge with Fios, investing over $23B. Google Fiber later pressured incumbents to move faster. Rollouts were expensive and slow, but those who invested set a new standard.
· Telecoms deploy fiber to the internet backbone and neighborhoods
· Wavelength technology multiplies data capacity
· Real-time services, cloud apps, and HiDef content become viable
Policy Shifts & Market Competition
Competition from local fiber providers and global policy reform pushed legacy carriers to evolve. Those that didn’t, like some regional telcos, were left behind or acquired.
· Deregulation and municipal fiber push ISPs to modernize
· Home internet speeds can reach up to 10 Gbps if the local provider is offering it
· Telecoms now pivot from voice delivery to data-first business models
Walking the Tightrope: The Strategic Gamble of Digital Infrastructure
In boardrooms across the globe, executives weren’t just debating marketing plans or product roadmaps, they were asking questions that could define their future:
These may have appeared to be technological decisions on the surface. Underneath, they were survival decisions. And history shows us how razor-thin the margin was between foresight and failure.
WHO WERE MAULED?
Sears | Betting on Brick, Not Bytes
Decision: Invest in physical store refurbishments rather than e-commerce.
Outcome: As Amazon scaled, Sears lagged. Despite being a retail pioneer with strong logistics infrastructure, it failed to integrate digital channels. It filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
What went wrong: Boardroom focus drifted away from the core business. The digital investment was too little, too late, and not architected for scale or agility.
Blockbuster | Declining the Netflix Deal
Decision: In 2000, Blockbuster infamously passed on the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million.
Outcome: Netflix embraced streaming and cloud-native delivery. Blockbuster stayed committed to in-store rentals and declared bankruptcy in 2010.
They have become the poster child of a failed digital transformation.
What went wrong: Leadership underestimated the infrastructure needs for digital delivery and overestimated the loyalty of their physical customer base.
Kodak | Invention Without Reinvention
Decision: Shelved their own digital camera technology in fear of cannibalizing their film revenue.
Outcome: Digital photography reshaped the industry. Kodak declared bankruptcy in 2012.
Today In 2025, Kodak is reinventing itself as a niche tech and manufacturing company, focusing on industrial printing, specialty chemicals, and motion picture film.
What went wrong: Boardroom strategy prioritized short-term revenue protection over long-term relevance. The tech existed, they were aware, but the infrastructure, culture, and business model didn’t adapt before having to file for bankruptcy.
Toys "R" US | Outsourcing Their Digital
Decision: In the early 2000s, they partnered with Amazon to run its e-commerce.
Outcome: They lost touch with their digital customers. When the partnership ended, Toys “R” Us had no internal capabilities to compete. It filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
In 2022, Toys “R” Us was attempting a rebound through partnerships with Macy’s, online sales, flagship stores, and global expansion.
What went wrong: Outsourcing core digital capabilities is not a transformation. That mirrored a delay tactic. Infrastructure ownership was sacrificed for short-term ease.
Borders | Partnering with a Competitor
Decision: Handed its online sales operations to Amazon instead of building in-house.
Outcome: Borders became entirely dependent on a competitor’s infrastructure. By 2011, it no longer exists as a brand or company.
What went wrong: The board’s decision reflected a lack of vision for digital commerce as a core competency. Investing in bookshelves instead of bandwidth costs them everything.
WHO WERE MADE BY TELCOM?
Amazon | Scaling for itself, then selling the scale
Decision: Built its own cloud (AWS) to support internal scale during a time when broadband and fiber optics were accelerating internet capabilities. Amazon anticipated the infrastructure wave and positioned itself to ride it, not wait for it.
Outcome: Became the gold standard in both retail and infrastructure-as-a-service. Just as fiber supercharged the internet, AWS supercharged how businesses scale online.
Success Factor: Invested early in scalable architecture and a performance-first culture while others were still adapting to the post-dial-up era. Amazon was built for high-speed growth before the world fully realized it would need it.
Netflix | Full "Stream" ahead to the second Hollywood
Decision: Pivoted from DVD-by-mail to streaming before broadband fully matured. They bet on the future of fiber rollouts and increasing home bandwidth capacity.
Outcome: As crazy as it sounds, they outpaced Hollywood and built global partnerships with buffering specialist companies (Content Delivery Networks). They used their proximity to fiber-rich data centers to deliver faster, buffer-free experiences.
Success Factor: Netflix was optimized for network latency, delivery pipelines, and user experience. They tuned performance to ride the wave of growing fiber-to-home penetration.
Domino’s Pizza | From Dough to Data
Decision: Starting with its 2010 “Pizza Turnaround,” Domino’s rebranded as a tech-driven company, leveraging the rise of broadband and fiber, later powering 5G to deliver seamless tracking and mobile ordering.
Outcome: As broadband, unlimited data, and 5G went mainstream, Domino’s turned pizza delivery into a frictionless digital experience, boosting market share and loyalty through real-time speed, and ease.
Success Factor: Domino’s saw wired and wireless infrastructure as core to its product, using broadband and 5G to power real-time connectivity from kitchen to doorstep. They prepared for a world that runs on speed and always-on demand.
Conclusion
THE PATTERN IS CLEAR
From 2005 to 2020, performance became product. And the backbone of that performance was the network speeds and feeds.
The companies that thrived treated bandwidth as core business enablers, not line items. The lesson, “Don't Be a Line Item”. Those that dismissed infrastructure as a cost center were gradually, then suddenly, outpaced!
David Wilkerson
Techologist | Architect
