Mac OSX 10.14 Mojave: cannot Install with configure: "Permission denied" and "command not found"

Question

I'm trying to install telnet from the command line.
Downloaded from here:
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/inetutils/
and unpacked.

Open Terminal
cd to folder "inetutils-1.9"
type ./configure
and Return.

This gives the following answer:
-bash: ./configure: Permission denied

So sudo might help:
sudo ./configure
Enter password and Return.

This gives the following answer:
sudo: ./configure: command not found

OSX 10.14.6

I gave Terminal Full Disk Access in the Security & Privacy pane.
I've checked the Permissions: I have read and write access.
I've checked that echo $PATH includes /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

I've disabled SIP.
I've uninstalled Homebrew.
I've uninstalled MaxPorts.

So what's wrong?

Some code:
'./configure'

Expected result: Telnet would be installed