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College professors were depending on ARPAnet to send messages to each other, and share information faster and more economically than was possible by either phone or mail.

Can i rewrite the phrase to

"College professors were depending on ARPAnet to send messages to each other, and share information faster and more economically than (it) was possible (to economically share messages) by either phone or mail." ?

Is the original usage common? It is hard to understand.

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You could say 'than it was possible to do by either phone or mail'. However, the condensed version is perfectly normal in formal English.

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  • Which parts of speech is "than" in the condensed version, pronoun or conjunction?
    – Mr. Wang
    Jul 27 at 8:36
  • Than is never a pronoun. The dictionary says that it's either a conjunction or a preposition; the distinction isn't very clear, but I'd say it's a conjunction here.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jul 27 at 8:41

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