2 ms·

Shame what happened to that company... :-( I have family who worked there during the hay days.

• ghaff 10y ago
  It's easy to romanticize the old Ma Bell especially given the fantastic work done by Bell Labs. I'd also remind you of the cost of a telephone system with monopoly status that didn't even let you install your own phones in the house for a long time. And which led too skits like Lily Tomlin's "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company."
  • deelowe 10y ago
    I can't romanticize about bell labs simply because the rest of the company had shady business practices? Huh?
    • socmag 10y ago
      I think the point was to romanticize but temper it with balance.
    • ghaff 10y ago
      Bell Labs was able to exist in large part because AT&T was a quasi-government regulated monopoly. You couldn't really have one without the other. (And I'm not sure I'd even say at&t had shady business practices. But they were a de facto monopoly.)