southern pacific communications company (spcc), a unit of the southern pacific railroad, began providing long-distance telephone service shortly after the mci telecommunications corp. v. fcc (execunet ii) decision late in 1978. the railroad had an extensive microwave communications system along its rights of way used for internal communications. in 1972 they began selling surplus time on that system to corporations for use as their own private line network, thereby circumventing at&t's then-monopoly on public telephony, later expanding to fiber optic cables laid along those same rights of way subsequent to the execunet ii decision late in 1978. prior attempts at offering long distance service were not approved by the federal communications commission, though the company's fax service (speedfax) had been permitted. spcc was headquartered in burlingame, california, where sprint still maintains a technology lab on adrian court.