The big IBM mainframes were dominant. Telephone is another centralised technology. All the local lines go to a central office, with a switch, that ultimately hooks up with all the other switches. The Internet, on the other hand, is mainly distributed. The routers and servers are distributed throughout the system.
Cable is both.
Our infrastructure is designed to be capable of transmitting centralised as well as distributed data and communications. Many say no, that the central switches are still too efficient a way of actually managing the information flow, and therefore telephony in one way or another will remain, to some degree, centralised. Others say it is just a matter of time. In other words, a cable system. So long, that is, as those tempted to define how the future of telecommunications will refrain from trying to mandate it.