What does AT&T/BellSouth mean for consumers?

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Actually, Ma Bell didn't have any competition

Bell Teliphone Company, aka Ma Bell, didn't have any competitors when it was broken up in 1975. That's the primary reason it was broken up. Basically, it's monopoly lead to poor customer service, over charging for what little service you did get. It wasn't until Ma Bell basically told the DOJ to stick in their ear that the feds stopped negotiating and broke the monopoly up into AT&T and the other baby bells which were given monopolitistic control over their territories for 10 years. Those 10 years were up in 1985 and we saw competition fire up. Now in a response to people switching to things like voip or even instant messaging the bells are merging back. The problem is that it's much too late for them to become an effective force. They don't have the political clout that would allow them to charge twice for the connections as that would have to go through each Public Utilities pricing approval process on the local level and as such it's not going to pass muster.

Posted by: maldain   Posted on: 03/06/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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