My understanding is that the telephone monopoly is what made basic research so valuable to the company. They had a long horizon (b/c of no competition) and use

My understanding is that the telephone monopoly is what made basic research so valuable to the company. They had a long horizon (b/c of no competition) and use for lots of innovation (lots of technical challenges in a huge market). Deregulation -> competition -> shorter time horizons and smaller scope -> no more Golden Age Bell Labs. Kind of sad, even though I assume we're better off post-deregulation.