Which is ironic, considering that the 1950s were long before the internet boom. The internet didn't even exist yet, let alone dial-up modems.

I was curious and looked this up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem#1950s

Mass production of telephone line modems in the United States began as part of the SAGE air-defense system in 1958, connecting terminals at various airbases, radar sites, and command-and-control centers to the SAGE director centers scattered around the United States and Canada.

Shortly afterwards in 1959, the technology in the SAGE modems was made available commercially as the Bell 101, which provided 110 bit/s speeds. Bell called this and several other early modems "datasets".