When Baran first proposed this idea, it was met with significant skepticism. AT&T, the dominant telecommunications company at the time, dismissed the concept as unfeasible. Many experts believed that a circuit-switched network (like traditional telephone systems) was the only viable way to transmit data reliably.
However, packet switching offered several advantages that would prove crucial for the Internet:
Efficiency: It allows multiple users to share the same data path, making more efficient use of network resources.
Robustness: If part of the network fails or is destroyed, data can still reach its destination by taking alternative routes.