I recall it differently. I ran a packet radio bbs when that was very active. What really killed it was the availability of internet for everyone. Usage just faded. As a result of this fading, efforts to build high speed uhf backbones faded away.
I wasn't involved in packet before the internet, but I was involved in amateur radio back then. From my view, the internet and mobile phones displaced a lot of general interest in this hobby.
Absolutely. The whole "You can talk to people all over the world with this" lost a lot of shine when the internet happened :)
I recall in Texas there was some ham repeaters that patched you into the local phone network using DTMF, but can’t recall exactly what it was called. Phone calls in Australia at the time were costly so it was really a novelty.
Packet was really multipoint packet switched like the internet using AX25 which was an adaptation of the X.25 protocol. Pretty similar to TCP/IP. You could even run TCP/IP over AX25 using various "NOS" programs. I used JNOS but most of the time I just used plain AX25 with SP.
But some people really loved it and in my area in Europe it absorbed all the buzz around packet. At that point the internet had already been around for a while but packet was still being used. I guess it depends on the region too.
These days there is actually a movement to provide a high-speed backbone microwave net independent of the internet with emergencies in mind. The idea is for it to replace all the internet-based repeater links for DNR, Brandmeister etc It's called hamnet and it's pretty active in the Netherlands and Germany.
Yeah, you can drive around and show the world where you are, but using it to write SMS messages when cell reception doesn't exist is awesome.
I don't know about everyone, but if I'm driving around with it on it is so I can see where I get coverage and where I don't. I have to use and test so I know it works when I want to communicate, but overall I'm not a ham to be social.