The Rise of AT&T’s Monopoly

[@dscott1524]

I worked for the Bell System, the Pacific Company in the 1960s. At that time we all knew it was a monopoly and that subscribers had no choice for telephone service. People relied on us. They trusted us to provide service that always worked. Many of us felt this was a sacred public trust, a contract, between the Company and the public. Need a doctor? Having a baby? Just wanting to chat with Aunt Betty? Pick up the phone and our commitment was that you WILL always get dial tone. I, and many others, actually cared. I miss the Bell System. Cheers.

[@filanfyretracker]

I mean there is a reason why in movies predating the wide and easy access to cell phones one way to depict a storm being exceptionally bad was not loss of power, but was loss of the telephone.

[@cv990a4]

In the New York City blackout of 2003, I still had a landline, and while nothing else electrical worked, that still did. And thru that I was able to call the airlines and rearrange travel. I haven't had a landline since a year or so later, but I wonder what I might have given up.

[@fredbarnes196]

Part of the bargain for getting a monopoly was providing good paying non college jobs to every town in America. And to keep that good job you had to provide good service.

[@MultiPetercool]

What everyone forgets is that AT&T charged business customers more to subsidize lower rates for consumers. The profits were invested in research at Bell Labs, which resulted in the laser, the transistor, UNIX and countless other innovations that have benefited mankind. As well as basic scientific research. The money generated by the telephone basically created the modern world as we know it.

[@stanfullerton8485]

Dad & mom worked bell system 42 yrs.

[@chrispriv9090]

It always interested me how at&t was viewed by many as the innovative tech company of the time while today we view it as nothing more than a basic service

[@barrelrush]

I mean, Google was once a great startup, now it is just, idk I'll google it I guess

[@cjay2]

How self-entitled of you. Just saying.

[@DriftJunkie]

It is a humbling experience to go phone-less for an extended period of time, or into some business scenarios one normally is used to quick access of information from a phone. Funny feeling how rapidly the invincibility crumbles & the world view narrows. Every local detail becomes so vivid.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

The current AT&T is a pretender. Its one of the local "baby bells" (SBC), that merge with several other, post 1985, baby bells, and managed to buy the dying husk of AT&T, which spun off its parts, just to survive a day longer. In the mid 1980s, AT&T divested local service, to comply with a settlement with the government. In the early 1990s, they split up, again, into 3 companies: A computer group, that quickly died, due to computers becoming a commodity. Lucent, which composed of Western Electric and Bell Labs, and AT&T for long distant service, and those new fangled cell phones. Long distance, became a thing of the past, and cell phone competition was intense. So much so, that SBC bought out it former mother company for a song.

[@DogmaticAtheist]

F*** Google Use duckduckgo

[@Ice_Karma]

25:33 At the end of the newspaper clipping: "[...] the merging of the telephone and telegraph companies into a corporation with a capitalization of something like $1,000,000,000." A *_billion_* dollars. *_In 1909 dollars._*

[@coraltown1]

I started my full time electronics career in 1977 working in telephony for Wescom, who sold equipment to AT&T. Wescom was bought by Rockwell in 1980 so they could redesign its PBX switch into a long distance tandem switch for MCI, thus going into direct competition with AT&T. Part of the challenge in doing this was AT&T did not give full access to their signalling protocols, so sometimes a Z80 CPU was needed to determine if the caller had 'picked up' (based on disappeared dial tone patterns). The first switch was setup in Chicago for testing, and we the engineering team had unlimited access for long distance calls, a personal communications gold mine back then.

[@Chris_In_Texas]

And ironically MCI was the one who filed suit to break up AT&T. Which in-itself was bought by Verizon. Funny how we went from 1 company, to the 7 baby bells, and now back to three; AT&T, Verizon, Lumen. I have also been to the Bell Labs building in Holmdel NJ, that is a great building and was there, just after it got purchased by the Bell Works group making it back into offices.

[@mikemccormick6128]

@@Chris_In_Texas Are you insinuating that Lumen is a national company? I wonder why I have never heard of them until now. My understanding of the big 3 are: 1. Verizon 2. T-Mobile 3. AT&T. I use Consumer Cellular because it's only $30/month. My Home Phone is Vonage.

[@jerryrobinson7856]

You may like the story of MCI and Bill McGowan the Chairman that’s on KZbin. It’s a true American hero story of grit, perseverance and legal maneuvering. He lived in a time of cigarettes, long hours, no exercise and unfortunate death from all of it. But, he really was a hero.

[@jerryrobinson7856]

There is a story of MCI and Chairman Bill McGowan on KZbin that is fascinating. A true hero.

[@rollinwithunclepete824]

I smell "The Fall Of AT&T Monopoly" video coming soon to a KZbin near you.

[@Thousandpointsoflight]

Only to be replaced by another Governments love monopolies It makes it easier to control the companies and their activities

[@moodfm5673]

@@Thousandpointsoflight think your in upside down land there friend

[@RationalistRebel]

​@@moodfm5673 Indeed, corporations _love_ monopolies. One of the many perks is the money to buy politicians, regulators, and judges to allow unchecked entrenchment of their power and expansion into other industries. The anti-trust laws that were created to stop them have effectively been gutted in the decades since, opening the floodgates to unparalleled corporate consolidation and corruption. The seldom used breaks and guardrails that remain will be dismantled entirely by the incoming administration and Congress. Anyone who understands history already knows the likely downhill paths this runaway train will take, but some people don't understand that there's no "winning" side in such a catastrophe...

[@cartmann94]

“The Breakup of the Death Star Mama Bell and the rise of the Baby Bells” is another exciting tale to tell.

[@Plasmacore_V]

@@cartmann94 And then "How South Western Bell reassembled AT&T".

[@Waderader]

You're my favorite creator these days. I'll be joining the Patreon in December. Thanks dude!

[@MrLulzbot]

Two words: Bell Labs, they may have been largely a service providerer but the conducted the kind of fundamental research that literally changed the world.

[@MSP_TechLab]

24:20 Pupins coil reminds me an episode from my practice. 15 years ago when I was young telecom technician, we tried to connect two modems through very old (1960x) copper line. But it didn't work. And we couldn't figure out why until some old technician remembered that this particular pair which we wanted to use could be equipped with Pupin coil. I asked then: "what coil?" Apperently, at that time this technology was deemed so old, that they stopped to teach about it, and I simply didn't know about its existance.

[@jhonwask]

Remember the ferrite ring on many computerized power supplies. This is the same principal: to reduce the noise.

[@MSP_TechLab]

@jhonwask not really. Pupin's coil compensate capacitance of the long line, not to reduce noice. However in my case, it seems it really started to work as filter.

[@grabasandwich]

Load coils! I became a contractor for our local telco nearly 20 years ago. I didn't come across them often, but sometimes on rural DSL trouble calls, I'd have to do a line transfer. The assignment dept would look thru their list and say some pairs were loaded, and could only be used for voice. Those calls were so infuriating as the customers loop could be 5-6 km long, on copper from the 60s-70s that were crumbling.

[@joeblow9374]

As someone who worked for various AT&T entities between 1978 and 2015, this is going to be fun. what a time it was.

[@stevengill1736]

My good friend Scott had an older brother John, who worked for a SF bay area phone company for most of his life. I think when he started phone traffic still went through relays, although in the late 60s things were modernizing fast. He was a technician, so when they made the turnover to all-computet switched, routed and ring signal controlled, he was in his element. At that time unlike Scott (who became a renowned electronics engineer himself), I knew little about computers, but John was a good spokesperson, and his descriptions of the multitudinous snafus that came up as the phone company adapted to software driven communication were easily absorbed . Him and Scott already had a home computer (think 1975), and it was their influence, as well as my fathers that finally got me interested in the digital world. But I lost track of them, although I'll never forget the red boxes we had (red boxes just emitted the sounds of coins falling into a pay phone, unlike blue boxes which emitted routing and other control tones). Yup, a lot could be said about those phone phreak days... But thank you for another interesting video - for some reason your videos often bring back fond memories [believe me, if I wasn't old and in the way I'd a joined your patreon long ago] Cheers ..... ;^=[}

[@adrianneill5014]

2600hz....

[@pooyankhosravi5337]

Competent "old" hackers are worth their weight in something much more precious than gold. You are not in the way and thank you for what you have built.

[@piuthemagicman]

Thank you for your story! :)

[@grabasandwich]

Evan Doorbell has a treasure trove of recordings from his phone trips. He even narrates them with great detail. I highly recommend listening to them!

[@Danilyn_Livao]

The deep dive into AT&T’s rise to monopoly status was eye-opening, especially with how you unpack the historical context and business strategies. Your detailed analysis makes this complex topic so much easier to understand. Keep up the great work-always look forward to your content!

[@RY-TIOUSRY]

your work ethic is astounding.

[@bobroberts2371]

Note that Elisha Gray and Enos M. Barton , in Dec 1925, spun off the general electrical supply side of Western Electric into the still existing company Graybar. See also, Ernestine the Telephone Operator

[@gus473]

Great telling of this complicated story, Jon. Am fortunate (and old enough!) to have known a few even older dudes who actually organized, financed, and physically built a couple of local telephone exchanges! And more than a few women who worked as operators. Worked a few years for a "Baby Bell." And now I am watching this via SpaceX Starlink on my Pixel! What a life! 😂

[@dmacrolens]

Yikes.

[@CalgarGTX]

Funnily enough SpaceX / Elon Musk is gonna have a de facto monopoly on 'middle of nowhere decent internet & mobile service' for quite a long time, considering it's already 9 years since they relanded a falcon9 and no one has bothered innovating or even copying them so nobody has the technical or scale ability to put in orbit a similar kind of service anytime soon. And this is despite them not even bothering to patent anything to make competition easy.

[@JohnnieWalkerGreen]

There was a time when we adjusted time and consulted the weather by calling the phone company. I did call C&P Telephone.

[@spyderlogan4992]

Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone. My Mom worked for them. And I also called for time- TI 4 - 2525. Forgot the weather number.

[@frykasj]

@20:44 Damn, that must've been a very scary dog.

[@dmacrolens]

It's nothing like coming with your mother!

[@CatnamedMittens]

Probably killed because he bad no heirs so his land was sold at auction to rivals.

[@93Martin]

Holy cow! Phenomenal story

[@BartKus]

5:35 "The hell it is!" ejaculated Mr.Patton 🤣

[@-_-----]

"Also get your mouth away from the damn microphone, you're too loud!" 😆

[@dimBulb5]

Funny to see how our language has evolved.

[@triadwarfare]

From Asianometry to Americanometry.

[@FromMyBrain]

I am sorta a new person here but... if i am meant to read the name the way you read it... its kinda unavoidable that the west will creep in.

[@swimmerboy172]

It’s a metrics game, my man. English speaking KZbin channel means you need to cover topics that westerners will click on.

[@nataliealliepage7155]

I think electronics are primarily a tradition of nations with access to the Pacific Ocean. This includes the UK which has some territories there. I believe the Netherlands do too.

[@ChristianDoretti]

Considering all these technological companies were pioneers in their fields in US, then it is a must

[@Nobe_Oddy]

DANGIT!!! I was hoping NOBODY else said anything because IO had a really good joke lines up.... now its ruined... ruu-EEnd ... RooEEnd... 😂

[@MoneySavingVideos]

I remember calling the operator if we wanted long distance. And it was expensive so you had to talk fast. But the quality through the old telephone of the voice on the other end was much better than the sound coming out of todays tiny cellphone speakers.

[@MustangsbyMatt]

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he already had three missed calls from Chuck Norris.

[@shorthawk]

This is already one of my all time favorite youtube videos

[@EannaButler]

I am Irish, so I don't have any real opinion of AT&T as a company. I do know they were behemoths in the telephony industry, and also that they seemed backward in terms of digital mobile tech uptake, like 2G and 3G back in the day, the old days of analog mobile tech. But for me - Bell Labs is were where Ken Thompson got to work on the ill-fated Multics project, and used his genius with the brilliant Dennis Ritchie to develop Unix. Unix is the baseline for all good computer operating systems. So - in my eyes, Bell Labs is just cool! I see them a bit like Xerox PARC, and the Xeros Alto - mouse-driven GUI interfaces, the "Mother of all Demos", in 1968... When for me America was indeed great! But they're also a bit like AOL, if AOL were any good at knowing how to build meaningful open standards in a new technological industry...

[@RonJohn63]

ATT was a highly competent land-line company. Unlike in the rest of the world, where the government PTT monopoly would take months to run a wired line, in 'Murica it only took a few weeks. Thus, _everyone_ had a land line phone, so there wasn't a real need for cell phones like there was in EMEA, Asia and "South of the Rio Grande". We also had good DSL and cable modem services. That meant consumers didn't need to push for faster cell speeds.

[@EannaButler]

@ Thanks

[@TheManFrayBentos]

About 30 years ago, incensed by the stupidly high rates I was paying my local telco, I sat down and worked out how cost effective it would be to set up a telephone company. Not that was thinking of doing it, I just wanted to see the costs and how much they were making. It surprised me. Even then, many decades on from AGB's roll-out, it still made lots of sense to do it the way he did it. Once the poles are in and the wires are slung, the exhange installed, it's all gravy from then on.

[@sagejpc1175]

Last time I was this early, AT&T was called Bell Telephone.

[@dmacrolens]

You've never been early to anything in your life. Stop lying to people.

[@sagejpc1175]

@dmacrolens hope you have a great day

[@donchaput8278]

11:52 Always love when I see a shoutout to Utica, NY

[@msalvag]

I'm glad to see nothing has changed. Bell Canada is the largest provider of telephone service in Ontario and Quebec and they consistently raise their rates under the claim of, service improvements.

[@siberx4]

Interestingly, while loading coils improve voice signal service over longer-distance telephone lines, they're highly detrimental to DSL connections over those same lines as they attenuate higher frequencies. This doesn't matter much any more with everything moving to cable and fibre, but for a lot of years your access to early broadband could be very limited by the presence of a crusty old loading coil on the longer-than-average phone line going to your house, until it was found and removed (sometimes difficult, due to poor record-keeping).

[@jeff__w]

“We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company.” -Lily Tomlin as Ernestine, _Saturday Night Live_ 18 September 1976

[@philpeters8200]

Thanks for a wonderful and educational video. In 1973, I started working for the Bell System (Ohio Bell) in the General Accounting department. One of my early assignments was auditing Independent Companies' Cost Studies. The whole concept of the Bell System Division of Revenues and its relationship to the Independent Companies was one of the most interesting things I ever did. Retired in 2012 and fondly remember the early days of the Bell System. Never the same after Divestiture and the breakup in the mid 80s.

[@youcantata]

Fascinating history! Yet another wonderful video! This video should have been three parts episodes. I have worked in developing full electronic telephone switch system of South Korea on 1980's and I saw the historic monopoly lawsuit and break-up of Bell into Baby Bells, but I didn't know such fascinating early history of telephone business and AT&T and Bell's. Hat Tip to Asianometry.

[@RaymondHulha]

Man you are on fire!!!!!!! 🎉

[@chuckygobyebye]

You should have a look into Henry Sutton from Ballarat, Australia. Alexander visited him to look at his telephones and telephone exchange. He invented many things that populate our homes today but didn't patent them.

[@tgj42495]

From Atl, Ga so my mom and her friends all used to all work at bellsouth. Even remember going with her on bring your kid to work day. Miss them days

[@Ed_Stuckey]

The house I grew up in had a phone next to the kitchen door that was similar to the one at 7:07. When we turned the crank, Mrs Prince picked up the line and requested the name or number of the party you wished to be connected to. Our number was R147J. Everyone knew she eavesdropped on calls.

[@ChuckLynch-uw5jf]

I worked in a branch lab of Bell labs in Indianapolis that supported the Western Electric facility there. It was a really good place to work back then

[@geographicaloddity2]

Thank you for another excellent video and a substitute teacher shout out. I work for a man who is always called AA-Ron by people who aren't in our org chart. We have lost a lot of ability as so many EEs have focused on digital instead of analog circuits. What many young grads think they need a microcontroller for, can be done with some opamps, transistors and relays. Fourth years ago I was one of those new grads who wanted to use a computer for everything.

[@aaronbasham6554]

Ah, the humble origins of Comstar. Great to see how things began.

[@nathanweitzman9531]

that was one hell of a merger with that church, tho

[@profbx5258]

15:26 what about the A-A-Ron transmitter?

[@e_valley2707]

The part about the 'deaf' was cut ~ 1.57 ... So, Bell worked at Bell as a 'salaried electrician', hmmm.

[@douglassauvageau7262]

J.P. Morgan and Co. simultaneously took a strong financial interest in copper-production. A comparative time-line graphic would be an interesting visual.

[@texasyojimbo]

Do I sense a follow-up video about the Baby Bells (including, ironically, the company that now calls itself AT&T)?

[@MrStevos]

As late as the 1960's you could still Not "own" a phone... You had to use & rent monthly your (black) phone from Bell ! When you could finally Buy phones (one's in colors & different styles) you still were not allowed to connect to you phone line. I did buy & connect an extension phone for my bedroom at home with my parents . Bell would investigate peoples lines ! They could tell by measuring & ringing your phone how many "ringers" were on your line. They "caught" us & threatened my parents, & they had to agree to pay them a monthly fee for the 2nd phone I bought & installed.

[@taiwanluthiers]

Then later on people built blue boxes for free long distance calls...

[@davidholder3207]

Strange how America in the early 20th century hated nationalisation but allowed monopolistic companies to evolve.

[@RonJohn63]

The video explained why.

[@dmacrolens]

It's really not. It's pretty straightforward, actually.

[@notanymore9471]

One doesn’t have anything to do with the other. America had a free market and the free market allowed monopolies. Nationalization is the government taking over a company which has nothing to do with a monopoly or the free market in fact it’s antithetical to a free market.

[@HiHello-dj8if]

Nationalization means that I have no choice at all. Monopoly means that I have no choice IF I want the specific product. Therefore, nationalization is much worse than a basic monopoly.

[@notanymore9471]

@@HiHello-dj8if nationalization means it was taken over by the government, nothing to do with a monopoly.

[@texasyojimbo]

Woodrow Wilson gets the W @ 28:05

[@davidbowman2001]

I had no idea burglar alarms were that old

[@dmacrolens]

This is exactly how I felt after coming with your mother!!

[@macsnafu]

This early history of Bell Telephone is interesting, because I hadn't really seen much on it. It's fascinating to see how phone service was originally just direct connections, and then they figured out how to make a network with switchable connections. It's also fascinating to see how active the company was before 1880. I had thought that phone service didn't gain much traction until after the turn of the century (1900, that is). 20:15 Hmm, I guess phone service DIDN"T gain much traction until after 1900, as I originally thought. It was hastened by the expiration of the Bell phone patents. And, as I thought, the government DID help create the phone monopoly, but not quite in the way I thought they did. Such a monopoly did slow down the adoption of the telephone nationwide, and probably had other consequences that are not obvious, but still harmful. But strangely enough, many people think the AT&T monopoly was a good thing, and not a bad thing. Either monopoly is bad or it's not. Don't be inconsistent and say that some monopolies are good and some are bad.

[@joeblow9374]

26:33 Holmdel, NJ. I see there's a wiki on it "Bell Labs Holmdel Complex"

[@creamysbrianna]

@Asianometry Great video. Also want to thank you for providing sources and citations. Do this provides additional credibility to your research. While I do appreciate this, what will add additional credibility is to use full dates. Especially for periodicals published daily and weekly. This helps others not have to sift through an entire years worth of microfilm or microfiche images.

[@ghostmantagshome-er6pb]

I dig this channel. I always learn something.

[@s3vR3x]

Great video with so much history!

[@bshingledecker]

Next video, The fall of the AT&T monopoly, (MCI Telecom)

[@captiannemo1587]

CompanyMen have a video on the re rise of AT&T.

[@AC-jk8wq]

I can hear the pin drop! 😃

[@Katchi_]

@@AC-jk8wq Sprint...

[@bshingledecker]

@@AC-jk8wq That was Sprint !!... LOL.

[@michaelturner2806]

I saw the title, and as I've been on a kick about board game history the last couple days, immediately thought it was a phone company branded version of the property trading game.

[@yds6268]

Something is wrong with intellectual property rights and the whole concept of it. Especially when there are always priority battles and controversies. Eventually, patents make people rich, but very rarely it's the original inventors.

[@steveinmidtown]

the detail in this 30 mins is wow

[@brydges02]

Got me with the Tesla fake out 😂

[@Syomiti]

18:29 - the "pool men" 🏊😂😂😂

[@Meezzio123]

I am starting to believe Asianometry is a smarter version of myself. Whenever a new video pops up on my feed there is a good 80% chance of the topic either being something I have looked into before or, an immediate "yep, that interests me".

[@cybersrb]

I was waiting for Mihajlo Pupin to show up in video... Thanks for mentioning this Serbian science juggernaut!

[@Tripple_Threatt92]

Fun fact, AT&T built a nuclear missile defense system. There’s a documentary and everything

[@DavidKutzler]

AT&T: "You will be assimilated!"

[@davidwell686]

Bell Laps was such a great feature of the old ATT company. Sad to see it disappear.

[@ChrisDreher]

15:32 Pretty sure that's a stereo photo, i.e. early 3D technology 😉

[@bertomsaurc]

28:04 Missing your references here bro. Great video tho!

[@rickden8362]

The Vail in this episode, is he the Vail named after Vail Mountain ski area?

[@W6EL]

Reminds me of your excellent video on the Unix wars. And… somehow AT&T is in both!

[@davidwell686]

Great show! Thank you

[@glass1258]

AKA Ma Bell

[@blueshells50]

"Antonio meuici invented the telephone he was robbed !" Tony Soprano

[@kchiem]

And from Bell Labs, the birth of unix, which powers the internet today.

[@MathematicsStudent]

I loved the Key and Peele reference 😂

[@robertn2951]

Can you do a video about how Antonio Meucci got robbed by Bell?

[@CookyMonzta]

I presume you made (or _will_ make) a video on how the monopoly came crashing down and how it was broken up, yes?

[@randyosborne3971]

The bomber in the van at Nashville Tennessee next to the AT&T building. What's the story?

[@swimmerboy172]

RIP Dr. Hirech, we will miss you

[@barrymaslow8441]

Damn, almost 1 million subs?! That was quick.

[@77gravity]

15:36 LOL, they may be twins, but that is the same photo, twice. The wrinkles in the clothing are identical.

[@JoeyJoe-f5o]

Now you can get cell service for the year for 180

[@faktablad]

I agree, the way people wrote in the late 1800s was marvelous

[@Nobe_Oddy]

wait WHAT?!????? @ 18:30 you show two mole on a telephone POLE .... but you called them 'telephone pool men' ... this is just a typo right?? I'm not missing some kinda weird slang again, am I??? lol

[@henrivanbemmel]

Bell's wife had money and Bell used some of his patent money to form the nascent NGS, which did not do much until into the 1900's and the editorship of Gilbert Grosvenor.

[@7wingsaseagles89]

Gray and Barton was eventually once again spun off from Western electric to form the corporation graybar electric. Which still operates today and distributes electrical and communications equipment.

[@918xD]

and in 2024 I can have a group video chat with friends in 5 different countries around the planet while using free wifi at the grocery store all for the price of $0😂

[@terminalterminus]

Great video. If anyone wanted to read further on this subject I can highly recommend "The Ideas Factory" by Jon Gertner, which goes into the formation, life, then breakup of Bell/AT&T. I'm British so have no real exposure to the company but found Jon's book fascinating, never realising how much of modern technology we have to thank AT&T for.

[@davidrmcmahon]

May I ask why KZbinrs often change preview cards? Changed in less than an hour this one. Just wondering.

[@simplemechanics246]

Endless greed is the reason why they are currently world worst operator. Not enough investment, not enough workers, most of the jobs they order outside, no training, nothing....only empty company and bad smell

[@henrivanbemmel]

Edison invented the carbon microphone without which the phone would not have worked effectively. At the Ford Museum there is a workroom where phones were being made.

[@ccshello1]

26:33 is the ultra modern Bell Labs building in Holmdel, New Jersey. It was built and opened in 1962, and further expanded to its final size in 1982. During its peak, more than four thousand people working under the same, single roof. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs_Holmdel_Complex It was closed, sold, and then redeveloped into a multi function facility known as Bell Works. From G Maps, there are plenty pictures in and out.

[@davesextraneousinformation9807]

Jon, you sly devil! I crossed my eyes looking at the Stager brothers and bam! There he was in 3D!

[@mrme8521]

Now you have to tell the story of the collapse

[@dmacrolens]

No, he doesn't. Do it yourself. Show everyone how much of a fuck you actually give!

[@Totttty55]

Those headlines + the comments at 20:42.. omg lmfao

[@christianchellis9057]

It seems like AT&T may have actually have been better as a monopoly than not.

[@x2ul725]

Okay took a bit, I get the term bell system or 'the bell'. Versus BCE today and the internet. Very specific old people say, the bell or bell system and I always got confused. Thank you

[@SwagEverlasting]

In Arkansas, they still have their claws dug in.

[@James-xu3vc]

You need to do the story about the MRI ❤

[@adudeisthebomb]

Part 2 please!

[@user-zx8de8op9l]

Well done

[@uditkotnis7531]

Heaviside inventyed matcching, pupin patented it.

[@BobFrTube]

I look forward to the follow-up video that explains why the very concept of telecommunications expired in the 1970s with VoIP putting the nail on its coffin -- we no longer need a provider. Telecom only exists because the purpose of the FCC (created to anoint ATT as the steward of communications) is to keep the industry alive despite market and legal forces.

[@ShannonWare]

The phrase "Annihilator of Space" was first applied to rail road. No original ideas, eh?