Wasn't part of this a fault of deregulation? In a 1975-era model, where AT&T owned all the physical plant, there was no point of interface where information wo

Wasn't part of this a fault of deregulation? In a 1975-era model, where AT&T owned all the physical plant, there was no point of interface where information would be lost. Presumably all the necessary information to monitor abuse was in the same place, because it needed to be accounted and billed for. There was no "Well, we know the calls are coming from Bob's Telecom and Shrimp Cannery, but all we can do is send them an angry letter" black hole. I'd expect there were also fewer opportunities for arbitrage hacks-- I doubt a monopoly player needs to do any sort of kick-back scheme to get someone to generate extra fruadulent traffic.