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The original quote was: > The yellow pages were absolutely run by state-owned telecom operators, less than 25 years ago, all over Europe. You then said > Onl

The original quote was: > The yellow pages were absolutely run by state-owned telecom operators, less than 25 years ago, all over Europe. You then said > Only because of the communist past How is that not saying that it is only due to a communist past that there were state run telcos that were producing yellow pages? Tbf I didn’t mention each and every name of the yellow pages equivalent (because time) but I think the assumption that the state owned telcos ran their respective yellow pages is fairly safe. Happy to be proven wrong though!

emteycz 5y ago
What I meant was that it was "all over Europe" only because a half of it was communist, not that only communist states had public telecoms and/or the entire Europe was communist. I'm very sure at least the eastern part would have been mostly private-run if it wasn't taken over by the communists.
- MrsPeaches 5y ago
  > I'm very sure at least the eastern part would have been mostly private-run if it wasn't taken over by the communists. What do you base that on? Pretty much every western European country had state owned telcos. As far as I am aware, prior to the 90s, private telcos seem to the exception rather than the rule across the world. It seems mainly to be a specifically north American thing to have private telcos prior to that. Looking at the countries surrounding the former soviet states going from north to south: Finland (originally a cooperative now owned by Norwegian state telco): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Oyj https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Oyj Sweden (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televerket_(Sweden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televerket_(Sweden) Germany (originally state-owned): link above Austria (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_Telekom_Austria_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_Telekom_Austria_Group Italy (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_TIM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_TIM Turkey (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_Telekom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_Telekom Looking east: Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Telegraph_and_Telephone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Telegraph_and_Telephone Malaysia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekom_Malaysia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekom_Malaysia South Korea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT_Corporation Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited#H... Indonesia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_Indonesia#Early_years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_Indonesia#Early_years And a couple of others: Switzerland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisscom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisscom South Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_(South_Africa) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_(South_Africa) Brazil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebr%C3%A1s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebr%C3%A1s I mean that's pretty much every major economy on the planet (with north America being the exception).

emteycz 5y ago

What I meant was that it was "all over Europe" only because a half of it was communist, not that only communist states had public telecoms and/or the entire Europe was communist. I'm very sure at least the eastern part would have been mostly private-run if it wasn't taken over by the communists.

MrsPeaches 5y ago
> I'm very sure at least the eastern part would have been mostly private-run if it wasn't taken over by the communists. What do you base that on? Pretty much every western European country had state owned telcos. As far as I am aware, prior to the 90s, private telcos seem to the exception rather than the rule across the world. It seems mainly to be a specifically north American thing to have private telcos prior to that. Looking at the countries surrounding the former soviet states going from north to south: Finland (originally a cooperative now owned by Norwegian state telco): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Oyj https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Oyj Sweden (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televerket_(Sweden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televerket_(Sweden) Germany (originally state-owned): link above Austria (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_Telekom_Austria_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_Telekom_Austria_Group Italy (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_TIM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_TIM Turkey (originally state-owned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_Telekom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_Telekom Looking east: Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Telegraph_and_Telephone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Telegraph_and_Telephone Malaysia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekom_Malaysia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekom_Malaysia South Korea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT_Corporation Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited#H... Indonesia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_Indonesia#Early_years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_Indonesia#Early_years And a couple of others: Switzerland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisscom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisscom South Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_(South_Africa) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telkom_(South_Africa) Brazil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebr%C3%A1s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebr%C3%A1s I mean that's pretty much every major economy on the planet (with north America being the exception).