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> The only reason the US has more than one cellular network right now it because the government has prevented multiple attempts at mergers, and even with that e
by milkytron 5y ago
> The only reason the US has more than one cellular network right now it because the government has prevented multiple attempts at mergers, and even with that effort we're down to three.
There actually was a monopoly in the telephone system[0] in the US that had to be broken up via antitrust.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System
- Osiris 5y agoAnd over the last 40 years has slowly consolidated back again.
- 0_____0 5y agoThanks, Reagan.
- AnthonyMouse 5y agoThe AT&T breakup actually happened under Reagan, and was initiated in 1974 (which was Nixon/Ford). The reconsolidation happened under both parties throughout the 90s and 2000s.
- gjvc 5y ago...and this whole saga, lest we forget (and relevant to the HN crowd), was instrumental in giving rise to the unix wars of the 90s, due to the AT&T copyright dispute with University of California Berkeley. (The relevant point here being not the copyright dispute itself, but the fact that AT&T was not allowed to sell the UNIX system for profit, this being one of the conditions of being allowed to operate as a telephone company.)