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Not actually true - Bell Labs was a government created and enforced monopoly, so the break up definitely helped people but it did not earn its 'monopoly' status

Not actually true - Bell Labs was a government created and enforced monopoly, so the break up definitely helped people but it did not earn its 'monopoly' status. As for Standard Oil at the height of it's market dominance the price of oil went down drastically, and by the time it was broken up it was nowhere near as dominant - iirc it was in the high 60%s of market share. The only monopolies that ever seem to truly exist and cause harm, are those that are granted special status and favors by the state.

Retric 5y ago
The big benefit was long distance calling. Breaking up the bells quickly resulted in dramatic price drops. Technology clearly helped, but you can adjust for that by compare to other countries telecoms which had the same benefits.
- mech422 5y ago
  >>Breaking up the bells quickly resulted in dramatic price drops. I can't remember how different my bills were, but I do remember all the jokes about how breaking Bell up made things worse.
  - Retric 5y ago
    Local rates went up before stabilizing, long distance rates quickly tanked. In May 1984, AT&T implemented its first rate reduction in 14 years, knocking an average 6.1 percent off interstate long-distance prices. Long distance prices fell 38% by 1988 ignoring inflation. And continued to drop in the years afterwards. Now how much this was a net benefit at the time really depended on how much you used long distance calling. Longer term it paved the way for people to call long distance ISP’s which made a real difference in early internet adoption.
    - mech422 5y ago
      Heh..I actually did the long distance thing for BBSs with my lil C64 and a 300 baud modem. QuickMail with BlueWave offline reader, and TradeWarz2000! Heaven! :-) I don't remember having to call long distance for an ISP though - dial up/shell ISP's sprang up in every lil nook and cranny :-)

Retric 5y ago

The big benefit was long distance calling. Breaking up the bells quickly resulted in dramatic price drops. Technology clearly helped, but you can adjust for that by compare to other countries telecoms which had the same benefits.

mech422 5y ago
>>Breaking up the bells quickly resulted in dramatic price drops. I can't remember how different my bills were, but I do remember all the jokes about how breaking Bell up made things worse.
- Retric 5y ago
  Local rates went up before stabilizing, long distance rates quickly tanked. In May 1984, AT&T implemented its first rate reduction in 14 years, knocking an average 6.1 percent off interstate long-distance prices. Long distance prices fell 38% by 1988 ignoring inflation. And continued to drop in the years afterwards. Now how much this was a net benefit at the time really depended on how much you used long distance calling. Longer term it paved the way for people to call long distance ISP’s which made a real difference in early internet adoption.
  - mech422 5y ago
    Heh..I actually did the long distance thing for BBSs with my lil C64 and a 300 baud modem. QuickMail with BlueWave offline reader, and TradeWarz2000! Heaven! :-) I don't remember having to call long distance for an ISP though - dial up/shell ISP's sprang up in every lil nook and cranny :-)