How was ATT not good at what they did? Yes they were a monopoly, but they provided reliable phone service to much of the US, and were required to built to cold

How was ATT not good at what they did? Yes they were a monopoly, but they provided reliable phone service to much of the US, and were required to built to cold war standards (reading about the long lines facilities is fascinating, with these massive concrete buildings and redundant backup generators). They also had an expanding wireless phone network (mostly for car phones) that was heavily rolled out by the early 80s. They put heavy research into satellite communication and laying undersea cable as well, not to mention bell labs. Many of the complaints against att are entirely valid, but I have not once heard that they were actually bad at running a phone company. That so many of the baby bells remain around in some form (ATT itself nowadays, Verizon, many local phone companies) seems to be a testament of that.