Lucent was the commercialized spinoff of AT&T's Bell Labs. They acquired Livingston, who made the best serial terminal concentrators (Portmaster) which were essential for cost-effective deployment of modem banks. They acquired Ascend, whose integrated ISDN/POTS/modem/terminal server systems were the heart of the highest density deployments. All of this equipment went into dialup ISPs' points-of-presence -- places where consumers could dial in.
The ISPs needed more! There was a price race to the bottom -- $20/month was borderline profitable, but you had to sell for $17.95 or $15 on an intro period in order to get customers switching to your service. So Lucent cleverly borrowed the idea of financing their own sales to the ISPs. At worst, they would end up repossessing the equipment -- which could be sold as nearly new to the next ISP in line.
But when the ISPs went out of business, the winners already had all the POPs they needed. And then Lucent collapsed.
Lucent was the commercialized spinoff of AT&T's Bell Labs. They acquired Livingston, who made the best serial terminal concentrators (Portmaster) which were essential for cost-effective deployment of modem banks. They acquired Ascend, whose integrated ISDN/POTS/modem/terminal server systems were the heart of the highest density deployments. All of this equipment went into dialup ISPs' points-of-presence -- places where consumers could dial in.
The ISPs needed more! There was a price race to the bottom -- $20/month was borderline profitable, but you had to sell for $17.95 or $15 on an intro period in order to get customers switching to your service. So Lucent cleverly borrowed the idea of financing their own sales to the ISPs. At worst, they would end up repossessing the equipment -- which could be sold as nearly new to the next ISP in line.
But when the ISPs went out of business, the winners already had all the POPs they needed. And then Lucent collapsed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascend_Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucent_Technologies
Lucent left behind one of the canonical coffee-mug-ring logos.