So he went his own way, insisting on selling low-cost Internet access to the small businesses that have come to make up the largest percentage of TLG's customer base. Lots of businesses have staff to deal with LANs, so thinking they can deal with WANs is not so far-fetched. Serving more than 35 providers, it covers a quarter of the market and has its eyes on other markets that are now only served by the more lumbering, less technically solid ISP giants such as Netcom and PSINet. Its office furniture looks like it's strictly from Value Village, and Jennings eschews wining and dining customers, making sales calls, or showing off the facilities. And the office environment is not the only sign of TLG nonconformity to the dominant paradigm.
Email is boring but good.
Like pencils, it just works. We provide zero content and are not into wacky Web ideas. In the early days, TLG had only one line, and with it the outages common to many providers. But today, TLG has built in multiple redundancies, and its technical record is impressive. True to happy-mutant form, it was there that Jennings finally formally clicked on Nielsen to be his chief engineer.