SSB and echo cancellation were two technologies that allowed modems to up the speed on POTS landlines. TechRadar has the story in Getting connected: a history of modems
It took 14 years, from 1980 until 1994, for the speed of the modem to develop from 14.4Kpbs to 28.9Kbps but it was only two years later, in 1996, that Brent Townshend came up with the technology for the 56k modem.
A lot of things happened in the 90’s. The I’net move from nonprofit only to commerce capable provided a social impetus to go along with data transfer rate improvements at the same time as operating systems could take advantage of new computer architectures and video systems to provide WIMP (windows, icons, mouse, pointer) interfaces. Two years to double modem speeds and then another two years before cable and DSL wideband started to up that by an order of magnitude.
An article like this is a good way to sit down and marvel at just how much things have changed in such a little time.
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